Something typical Oosterhouts. This can be found on the ‘milkmaid’ of Johannes Vermeer, which attracts more than 2.5 million visitors to the Rijksmuseum every year. The world-famous painting of the Hollandse Meester and the West Brabant city are inextricably linked. Reporter Niek de Bruijn delves into history and discovers that you sometimes have to make a game of it first to understand the past.
‘Oosterhout, Hart van West-Brabant. On the border of sand and clay ‘. That is the first sentence from the national anthem of the city. The clay soil under Oosterhout appears to be the perfect mix to make earthenware. From the late Middle Ages, the Oosterhouters therefore make a mess of it.
So much so that the city grows into the potter center of the Netherlands. At the end of the seventeenth century, Oosterhout has thirty potteries. At one point even one in eight potteries in the Netherlands is in the West Brabant city.
“The ears of the cooking pot are characteristic of the earthenware of Oosterhout.”
Millions of pots are exported annually from Oosterhout and end up on Indonesia and the Spitsbergen island group, among others. But they are also found closer to home. No Delft blue, but Oosterhouts flower pot red lands on the ‘milkmaid’ by Johannes Vermeer.
“It seems that this is Oosterhouts,” says Leonie van Heemskerk of Theater De Schelleboom, the only remaining pottery in Oosterhout. “The double edges and ears of the cooking pot and the red -brown color are indicative of the earthenware of Oosterhout,” she continues, indicating it on a replica of the painting. This is a bit more difficult to say about the jug. “But we think it’s a set.”
The utensils in the paintings of Johannes Vermeer have been investigated for the past two years by curator Alexandra van Dongen of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. For example, she also examined the pottery of the kitchen maid from Delft on Vermeers world -famous painting from 1658. The museum has a similar jar in the depot.
Shards brought Van Dongen happiness in her research. “Under our feet, shards of earthenware have been found, which has exactly the same model as on the ‘milkmaid’,” the curator says on the Schelleboom shards, on which the journey of the Oosterhout earthenware is central from soil to painting. “They cannot have been made anywhere else.”
Indeed, it appears that the ‘milkmaid’ to go to Oosterhout’s earthenware. That Van Dongens research and a 3D visualization made with artificial intelligence showed. “Such an unsightly cooking pot has an incredibly beautiful history and even ends up in a painting by Johannes Vermeer,” says Van Dongen.
“That flowerpotrode color is typical of Oosterhout’s earthenware.”
Nice, about 3D visualization, but it is much nicer to put your hands in the clay yourself. That is why I make a replica of the world -famous milk jug with more than three kilos of clay. “That flowerpotrode color, which the replica will soon get, is typical of Oosterhout’s earthenware,” says potter Ria Renders of Sri Keramics from Dorst. She is one of the few potters in the municipality of Oosterhout and ensures that my creation process runs in jugs and jugs.
The hands of the potters also deserve, just like the painter of the ‘Milkmaid’, the title ‘Master’. At least, they find that at the Schelleboom in Oosterhout. In a permanent walk over their shards yard and in a temporary exhibition in the theater, which can be seen until mid -September, visitors are therefore taken along the rich history of the Oosterhout earthenware and the art of Johannes Vermeer.
Or the interactive Vermeer Experience In Oosterhout this summer the visitor numbers of the Rijksmuseum, which attracts more than 2.5 million people to the ‘milkmaid’ every year, will match? They hope for the former pottery. “Buses full of tourists, come to Oosterhout to see this. We keep telling this story until everyone knows.”
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In August, the regional reporters of Omroep Brabant will bring summer columns from their region. You read and view them online and in the news broadcast on television. Do you have news for reporter Niek de Bruijn (Oosterhout, Geertruidenberg, Drimmelen and Altena region)? Send your tip to [email protected].