Update: turns out I made a common mistake in thinking that this was the scene of Vermeer’s View of Delft. The gate in Vermeer’s painting is actually the Rotterdam Gate, which was torn down in 1836. Oops.

While Em was here, she provided a quick crash course in Dutch art history that included many field trips to museums. One piece that resonated with me was Johannes Vermeer‘s View of Delft.

Vermeer’s View of Delft

As one might expect, it’s much better in person. The way the light glows on the Nieuwe Kerk can only be captured partially by photograph. It lives in the Mauritshuis in The Hague – not too far from Delft, but it seems a bit of a crime that it’s outside of Delft. This painting and The Little Street are the only two remaining Vermeer cityscapes of Delft, and it’s remarkable how much Delft still looks and feels like it did in Vermeer’s paintings.

In fact, zero Vermeer works remain in Delft, though seven remain in the Netherlands, and the rest are in London, New York, Paris, and so on. Vermeer died locally respected but poor, and he left behind eleven children. His wife had to pawn off his paintings to pay off creditors. It was tough economic times for the Netherlands in general. One of the things I learned from the museums was that Vermeer’s paintings were intentionally optimistic. During his lifetime, the Netherlands was plagued by, well, the plague, three wars with England, a war with France, and the Delft Thunderclap, which was made possible because the Dutch were at war so much that they had to store a metric shit ton of gunpowder. The gunpowder store exploded and killed one hundred people, injured one thousand, and destroyed much of the city. But Vermeer showed none of the destruction. The notes on the View of Delft interpreted it as a sign of hope with the Nieuwe Kerk shining behind the darkness.

Anyhow, on my bike ride to and from the university library where I have been working lately, I noticed that I rode right by the scene of Vermeer’s View of Delft! There’s a quite busy bike path right there that goes along the East edge of the town center. The Oostpoort (“Eastern Gate”) is right across the river, and the Nieuwe Kerk (“New Church”) is off to the right in the background. I walked around there to try to get as close as I could to the actual perspective of the View of Delft, but it wasn’t quite possible without going into the apartment buildings that are now in the foreground. I wondered if the people in the top floors of those apartments were amazed when they happened to look out their windows and the clouds formed just right to shade the Oostpoort and the buildings right across the river but illuminate the town center and the Nieuwe Kerk.

View when riding by

As close as I could get to the actual perspective of the View of Delft, though one can’t see much behind the trees, and I needed to get significantly higher off the ground.

There are a few benches right across the bridge that goes to the Oostpoort. It’s a charming spot, similar enough in spirit to Vermeer’s View of Delft.

Benches across from the Oostpoort

Also, people ride bikes right across that bridge and through said Oostpoort. I did that after taking the photos.