Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/629

vi JOHANNES VERMEER 605 52^. A Picture of a Street. A view in a town of picturesque houses, with four figures. Panel, 15 inches by 10 inches ; the dimensions recall the views of towns by J. Vrel. [Compare 51.] Sales. H. Reydon and others, Amsterdam, April 5, 1827, No. 28 (161 florins, Immersum). A. W. C. Baron van Nagell van Ampsen, The Hague, September 5, 1851, No. 39 (62 florins, Vinck). 53. A violent Storm at Sea. With a shipwreck and many figures. Panel, 20 inches by 16 inches. In the possession of Von Krane-Matena, Darmstadt, in 1863 (Parthey, ii. 849). 54. A public Place at The Hague. In the square are a pump and lime trees. In the right background are houses of varied architecture with picturesque gables. In the foreground, in full light, is a knife- grinder, seen in profile. He converses with an old woman wearing a grey felt hat, who leans on a stick and holds a bottle in her right hand. Behind them a young woman waits with folded arms for the knife- grinder to sharpen her knife. She listens absently to the compliments which a gallant is paying her. A huntsman with a dog crosses the square ; other figures here and there are going away in different directions. A cart with two white horses comes forward. 52 inches by 77 inches. The picture can hardly have been by Vermeer, since nothing is known concerning any such picture from his hand. Sale. Demidoff, San Donate near Florence, March 15, 1880, No. 1128. A chronological index of the works by Vermeer that bear dates or may be dated cannot be given, since only one of his pictures has a date, namely, "The Procuress," in the Dresden Gallery, dated 1656.