View of Delft
1660 · Mauritshuis, The Hague
Vermeer painted his own city from across the harbor, almost his only townscape. Proust called it the most beautiful painting in the world.
★ 9.3
Browse by time · decade
1660s
1660 – 1669
Showing 12 artworks from the 1660s
Return of the Prodigal Son
1669 · Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
The son kneels with his shorn head against his father's chest and the old man's hands come down on his back. Rembrandt painted it near death.
★ 8.7
Girl with a Pearl Earring
1665 · Mauritshuis, The Hague
Not a portrait of anyone in particular but a tronie, a study of a type, which somehow made her the most looked-at girl in art.
★ 8.6
The Milkmaid (Vermeer)
1660 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
A kitchen maid pours a thin stream of milk in ordinary daylight, given the weight and stillness usually reserved for saints.
★ 8.5
The Art of Painting (The Artist's Studio)
1668 · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Vermeer never sold this one. The model poses as Clio, muse of history, with a great map of the Netherlands filling the wall behind.
★ 8.3
Self-Portrait (Rembrandt, 1665)
1665 · Kenwood House, London
The old painter holds his brushes and palette, and behind him two large arcs are drawn on the wall that nobody has explained.
★ 7.7
Woman Holding a Balance
1665 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia
The scales in her hand are empty and perfectly level, and the painting on the wall behind her is a Last Judgment.
★ 7.4
Young Woman with a Water Jug
1662 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
One hand on the pitcher, one on the window latch, and morning light coming through onto a white cap. Nothing happens, perfectly.
★ 7.2
Officer and a Laughing Girl
1660 · The Frick Collection, New York City
The officer's hat and back loom enormous in the foreground while the girl sits small and bright beyond, which is exactly how the eye works.
★ 7.1
Feast of St. Nicholas
1665 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
One child hugs her presents while a boy howls because his shoe held nothing but a birch rod, and the grandmother beckons with a secret.
★ 6.8
St. Francis Standing
1660 · Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Boston
No landscape, no story, just a man in patched brown wool holding a skull and one shaft of light finding him in the dark.
★ 6.3
The Merry Family
1668 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The parents sing and drink and a toddler is handed a pipe. A note in the picture reads: as the old sing, so the young pipe.
★ 6.3