The Lacemaker

In 2022, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Musée du Louvre-Lens, the Musée du Louvre lent it The Seated Scribe, an iconic work from the Département des Antiquités Égyptiennes. One year later, the Louvre is reaffirming its commitment to the Louvre-Lens with the loan of The Lacemaker (1670–71), the masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer. Following its display in the Vermeer exhibition-event at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, this iconic painting is joining the Gallery of Time at the Louvre-Lens for visitors to admire from 28 June, for a duration of one year.

The Lacemaker, an iconic work by Johannes Vermeer

Together with The Milkmaid and The Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Lacemaker is one of the artist’s best-known masterpieces.

A late work by Johannes Vermeer, this small oil on canvas depicts a fashionable subject in Delft in around 1660–70, that of the lacemaker, a comfortably off young woman busy with an everyday task in an interior. Possibly aided by the use of a camera obscura, an optical instrument that helps to capture a subject, he created an image centred on the model, introduced by a succession of planes, in which the composition is enhanced by light effects: the painter plays on the effects of selective precision to define certain details while leaving certain areas more blurry. Thus the colour threads emerging from the sewing cushion (naaikussen) are treated in such a way that they have a surprising appearance, akin to melted wax. The predominantly blueish hues of the foreground highlight the young woman, who is treated in warm tones, set against the grey neutral background of the bare wall. The furniture and accessories are not anecdotal details but veritable subjects. The gaze has to climb over them as if they were obstacles to reach the lacemaker, in order to enter her private world. Detached from the flat tint, these different planes have their own intrinsic pictorial interest.

A unique treatment of the subject: the mise en abyme of the viewer

The Lacemaker is one of Vermeer’s smallest paintings, which enabled the painter to draw on all his virtuosic skills. Of all his works, it is the one in which the effect of concentration is most intense. The decision to frame the subject very tightly – more so even than in The Milkmaid – while reducing the size of the canvas, leads the viewer in turn to concentrate, adopting a posture identical to that of the subject, in a unique effect of mise en abyme. The Lacemaker is one of Vermeer’s most impenetrable works. It embodies the mystery and complexity that surround the works of this artist, a painter of silence and tranquillity, in which the simplest gestures are imbued with great poetry.

The loan of an exceptional work in the heart of the Gallery of Time

The Musée du Louvre-Lens has been in existence for ten years, during which time it has been visited by five million people. This anniversary is being marked by a year of celebrations, and also by a bold gesture on the part of the Musée du Louvre, reflecting its desire to share exceptional works with visitors to the Louvre-Lens.

The Lacemaker will be displayed in the Gallery of Time, the museum’s iconic space, embodiment of the aim to create a Louvre with a difference, strongly committed to making art and culture accessible to all. It will enhance the gallery’s unique presentation and will be on display for all visitors to see during this exceptional voyage through the history of art and humankind.

This loan makes it possible, once again, to celebrate the remarkable venture that is the Musée du Louvre-Lens, a vital element in the transformation of the region, made possible thanks to the ongoing mobilisation of the local authorities: the Région Hauts-de-France, the Département du Pas-de-Calais and the Communauté d’Agglomération de Lens-Liévin.

“The loan of this emblematic work from our collections testifies once again to our unfailing attachment to the community of spirit, project and ambition formed jointly by the Musée du Louvre and the Musée du Louvre-Lens. It reflects, through its exceptional character, the concrete support provided by the Louvre to the Louvre-Lens and our wish to continue to show the most diverse range of masterpieces there.

After the extraordinary success of the Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, I am delighted that The Lacemaker will be stopping off in the Hauts-de-France, highlighting the European dimension of the Louvre-Lens, while resonating at a local level with the art of lacemaking that was so deeply rooted in the region. I am convinced that visitors to the Louvre-Lens, the leading venue for the presentation of the Louvre’s collections outside Paris, will welcome it as warmly and enthusiastically as they did The Seated Scribe last year.”

Laurence des Cars, president-director of the Musée du Louvre

“The loan of this work is a beautiful event for the Louvre-Lens, the mining region and more widely the Hauts-de-France. The Louvre-Lens is an exceptional cultural tool that we are fortunate to have, a jewel that enhances the mining past of the Hauts-de-France.

The reception of Vermeer’s Lacemaker is a beautiful gesture on the part of the Musée du Louvre for the region. With Caudry and Calais, this is a region of lacework, a skill particular to the Hauts-de-France that is recognised internationally and which we endeavour to conserve. We can be proud to have the work of a great master of Dutch painting that represents an art to which the region remains attached.”

Xavier Bertrand, president of the Région Hauts-de-France