In the manner of Johannes Vermeer
Dutch, 1632–1675
The Baker, 2026
Oil on canvas
50 × 40 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.3.2
A young man in a blue cap and a yellow apron scores a round loaf with a razor, and the flour on the table has been painted grain by grain. A blue and white jug waits at his elbow. There is a pearl in his ear. Vermeer's *Milkmaid* has poured the same thin stream of milk for three and a half centuries without spilling it. This is the same absorption. The bread also takes three days.
The brief
A young man in an apron by a window, scoring a loaf of sourdough with a razor, flour on the table, a jug of water, a pearl earring catching the light. Seventeenth-century Dutch interior oil painting, a single figure absorbed in a quiet task beside a window on the left, cool daylight modelling every surface, ultramarine and lead-tin yellow against grey walls, pearly highlights, a tiled floor in perspective, hushed stillness, extremely fine smooth finish. Museum photograph of the oil painting, soft even gallery lighting, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
