The Little Street

Also known as View of Houses in Delft, this is the only known outdoor scene by Vermeer of this type: a quiet street with only a few figures. The artist has captured the various materials meticulously: the worn bricks of the masonry, the gleam of the leaded windows, the white- plastered wall. The paint is applied thickly in one spot and thinly in another; in some places it is smooth, in others grainy.

From the collections of J. Dissius (Delft), P. and L. van Winter and J. Six (Amsterdam), among others. Gift of Sir Henry Deterding, 1921.