Kitchen Scene

1618–20

Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660)

In this modest kitchen scene, a type known as a bodegón (from the Spanish word for pantry), Diego Velázquez depicted a young African woman at work, surrounded by exquisitely rendered pots, jugs, a mortar and pestle, and a crumpled paper wrapper for spices. In creating this painting, Velázquez may have used an enslaved woman from his or an associate’s household as a model. Slavery was widespread in the young artist’s hometown of Seville, Spain, and Velázquez, his father, and his teacher, Francisco Pacheco, were all enslavers.

Status: On View, Gallery 211
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Diego Velázquez
Title: Kitchen Scene
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1618–1622
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 55.9 × 104.2 cm (21 7/8 × 41 1/8 in.); Framed: 74.9 × 125.1 × 7.3 cm (29 1/2 × 49 1/4 × 2 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund
Reference Number: 1935.380
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/21934/manifest.json

August L. Mayer, “Das Original der ‘Küchenmagd’ von Velázquez,” Der Cicerone 19 (1927), pp. 562-63, ill.
[J. Goudstikker], Catalogue des nouvelles acquisitions de la collection Goudstikker exposées à Amsterdam, Heerengracht 458, no. 33 (Amsterdam, 1927), p. 127, no. 129.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Bulletin 7, 1 (October 1936), pp. 2-3.
August L. Mayer, Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures and Drawings (London, 1936), p. 24, no. 105, pl. 39.
“Fifteen New Acquisitions at Chicago,” The Art News 35, 13 (December 26, 1936), p. 9, ill.
Daniel Catton Rich, “An El Greco and a Velázquez,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 31 (1937), pp. 2–5, ill.
Enrique Lafuente, Velazquez (London and New York, 1943), pp. 10, 11, , 17, under no. III, pl. 3.
Martin S. Soria, “An Unknown Early Painting by Velázquez,” Burlington Magazine 91 (1949), pp. 124, 127, 128, fig. 4.
Dorothy Grafly, “On the Subject of Man. A Report on the Carnegie Institute’s ‘Genre’ Show and the Arensberg Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,” American Artist 18, 9 (December 1954), p. 38 (ill.).
Bernardino de Pantorba, La vida y la obra del Velázquez (Madrid, 1955), p. 65, no. 5 (ill.).
Charles Sterling, La Nature Morte de l’antiquité à nos jours (Paris, 1952), no. 62, pp. 67, 132.
Carl Justi, Velázquez y su siglo (Madrid, 1953), rev. ed. with appendix by Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, pp. 818, 830, fig. 228.
Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, La Pintura Española fuera de España (Historia y Catálogo) (Madrid, 1958), p. 318, no. 2815.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 459-60, ill. p. 99.
Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, Diego Velázquez (Madrid, 1962), p. 10.
José López-Rey, Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Oeuvre (London, 1963), p. 156, no. 99, pl. 24.
Leo Steinberg, review of José López-Rey, Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Oeuvre in The Art Bulletin, 47 (1965), pp. 278, 279, 281.
José López-Rey, Velázquez’ Work and World (London, 1968), pl. 21.
P. M. Bardi, L’Opera completa di Velázquez (Milan, 1969), cat. 5A (ill.).
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (London, 1970), pp. 258, ill., 288.
Jose Gudiol, Velázquez 1599-1660: Historia de su vida; Catalogo de su obra; estudio de la evolucion de su tecnica (Barcelona, 1973), p. 323, cat. 4, fig. 11.
Madlyn Millner Kahr, Velázquez: The Art of Painting (New York, 1976), p. 21.
José López-Rey, Velázquez. The Artist as a Maker with a Catalogue Raisonné of his extant Works (Lausanne-Paris, 1979), pp. 17, 218, no. 18, fig. 77.
John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York, 1979), p. 285.
Maurice Sérullaz, Velázquez (New York, 1981), p. 32, fig. 38.
Marianna Haraszti-Takács, Spanish Genre Painting in the Seventeenth Century (Budapest, 1983), pp. 223-24, no. 213, pl. 82.
William B. Jordan, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age, 1600-1650, exhib. cat., Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 1985, pp. 76, 81, n. 15.
Charles Sterling, La nature morte de l’antiquité au XXe siècle (rev. ed., Paris, 1985), pp. 63 ill., 71-2, 137.
Jonathan Brown, Velázquez: Painter and Courtier (New Haven and London, 1986), p. 21, pl. 26.
Barry Wind, Velazquez’s Bodegones: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Genre Painting (Fairfax, Virginia, 1987), fig. 8.
Rosemarie Mulcahy, Spanish Paintings in The National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, 1988), pp. 79-82.
Adrian Le Harivel, Rosemarie Mulcahy, and Homan Potterton, National Gallery of Ireland: The Beit Collection (Dublin, 1988), p. 52, under no. 16.
Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Julián Gállego, Velázquez, exhib. cat., Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1990, pp. 58-61, under cat. 1, ill.
Odile Delenda, Velázquez: Peintre religieux (Geneva, 1993), p. 32, pl. 5.
Julián Gállego, Velázquez en Sevilla (Seville, 1994), pp. 101, 113-14, 180; reprinted in Julián Gállego, La realidad trascendida y otros estudios sobre Velázquez, ed. Francisco Calvo Serraller and Javier Portús (Madrid, 2011), pp. 188, 193, under no. 4.
José López-Rey, Velázquez. Catalogue Raisonné (Cologne, 1996), pp. 42-44, no. 18, ill. p. 45.
Yves Bottineau, Velázquez (Paris, 1998), p. 53, fig. 35.
Peter Cherry, Arte y Naturaleza: el bodegón español en el siglo de oro (Aranjuez, 1999), pp. 56, 62, 70 n. 88, pl. 26.
Gridley McKim-Smith, “La técnica Sevillana de Velázquez” in Velázquez y Sevilla, exhib. cat. Seville, Monasterio de la Cartuja de Santa María de las Cuevas, 1999, pp. 116, 119 ill.
Miguel Morán Turina and Isabel Sánchez Quevedo, Velázquez. Catálogo completo (Madrid, 1999), pp. 22, 24-25, ill., no. 4.
Felix Scheffler, Das spanische Stilleben des 17. Jahrhunderts: Theorie, Genese und Entfaltung einer neuen Bildgattung (Frankfurt am Main, 2000), p. 124, fig 19.
Gridley McKim-Smith, Inge Fiedler, Rhona Macbeth, Richard Newman, and Frank Zuccari, “Velázquez: Painting from Life” in Essays in Honor of John M. Brealey, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 40 (2005), pp. 79-91, figs. 1,3, 4.
Frank Zuccari, Zahira Véliz, and Inge Fiedler, “Saint John in the Wilderness: Observations on Technique, Style, and Authorship,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 31, 2 (2005), pp. 32, 32, 107, figs. 3, 8b.
Javier Portus, Velázquez’s Fables. Mythyology and Sacred History in the Golden Age, exhib. cat., Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007, p. 306, under no. 3.
Peter Cherry, review of Velázquez, National Gallery, London in Burlington Magazine 149 (2007), pp. 50-52, figs. 57, 59.
Fernando Checa, Velázquez: The Complete Paintings, (Antwerp, 2008), p. 61, no. 5b ill.
Sarah Schroth, “A New Style of Grandeur: Politics and Patronage at the Court of Philip III” in El Greco to Velázquez, Art during the Reign of Philip III, exhib. cat., Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2008, p. 114.
Sarah Schroth and Ronni Baer, “Still Life and the Bodegón” in El Greco to Velázquez, Art during the Reign of Philip III, exhib. cat. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2008, p. 271.
David Pullins and Vanessa K. Valdés, Juan de Pareja: Afro-Hispanic Painter in the Age of Velázquez, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023), 72, 73 (ill), 74, as Kitchen Maid.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tentoonstelling van Oude Kunst door de Vereeniging van Handelaren in Oude Kunst in Nederland, 1929, no. 151.
Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Spanish Paintings, Textiles, Furniture, Arms and Pottery, 1936, no cat.
Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, The Painters of Still Life, 25 January–15 February 1938, cat. 42.
Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, Spanish Painting, 16 March - 27 April, 1941, no. 59.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Caravaggio and the Tenebrosi, 8 April – 30 May 1954, no. 23.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Pictures of Everyday Life: Genre Painting in Europe 1500-1900, 14 October – 12 December 1954, no. 27.
Denver, Colorado, The Denver Art Museum, Baroque Art, 3 October – 15 November 1971, p. 106, ill.
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Velázquez in Seville, August 8–October 20, 1996, cat. 23.
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, El Bodegón Español [De Zurbarán a Picasso], 13 December 1999 - 19 April 2000, no. 17.
Seville, Hospital de los Venerables, De Herrera a Velazquez: El primer naturalismo en Sevilla, 29 November 2005 - 28 February 2006; traveled to Bilbao, Museo de Belles Artes de Bilbao, 20 March - 28 May 2006, no. 36.
London, The National Gallery, Velázquez, 18 October 2006 - 21 January 2007, no. 6.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, El Greco to Velázquez, Art during the Reign of Philip III, April 20- July 27, 2008, cat. 60; Durham, North Carolina, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, August 21- November 9, 2008.
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Velázquez, March 20-July 13, 2015, cat. 16.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter, Apr. 3 - July 16, 2023, p. 73 (ill), as Kitchen Maid.

Private collection, Zurich [according to Mayer 1936]. Dr. L. von Buerkel, Munich [according to Mayer 1936]. Bottenwieser, Berlin [according to Mayer 1936]. J. Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by 1927, until 1935 [see Mayer 1927; Mayer 1936 mentions Mrs. Sterner, New York as owner between Goudstikker and the Art Institute, however, the painting was shipped directly from Goudstikker in Amsterdam to Chicago in November, 1935]; sold by Goudstikker to The Art Institute, 1935.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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