The painting "View of houses in Delft", also known as "The Street", is a work by the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). It is one of the two known cityscapes by Vermeer and has been exhibited in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam since 1921.
This painting shows a scene of an alley with houses in Delft. The everyday life depicted here is in stark contrast to Vermeer's earlier works, which often contained Biblical or mythological themes. Vermeer probably painted this work around 1658. It is an oil painting on canvas with dimensions of 54.3 x 44 centimeters and a thickness of nine centimeters. The painting has hung in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam since the 1920s.
A gutter is visible in the center of the painting, indicating that the houses are close to a canal. The alley with the woman scrubbing and the roofs further away give the painting depth.
The location
There are various theories about the exact location of 'Het Straatje'. In November 2015, art historian Frans Grijzenhout stated that the building on Vlamingstraat in Delft must be the location in question. The district in which Vlamingstraat was located at the time was a middle-class district where people lived with small salaries, such as butchers and carpenters. The house in the famous painting was lived in by an aunt of Johannes Vermeer.
