User:JohnWBarber/Draft/The Procuress

The Procuress is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in 1656 and at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister museum in Dresden.

Description
This is one of only three paintings Vermeer signed and dated (the other two are The Astronomer and The Geographer)

Reception
Some critics have thought the painting is atypical of Vermeer's style and expression.

Pieter Swillens wrote in 1950 that&mdash;if the work was by Vermeer at all&mdash;it showed the artist "seeking and groping" to find a suitable mode of expression. Eduard Trautscholdt wrote 10 years before that "The temperament of the 24-year-old Vermeer fully emerges for the first time" (footnote 2 -- Liedtke)

Provenance and Exhibitions
The painting was in the Wallenstein collection in Dux (Duchcov), then bought in 1741 for the Elector of Saxony. (Liedtke)

The painting was exhibited in 1980 at the Restaurierte Kunstwerke in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republic exhibit in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Altes Museum (Liedtke)