Dutch windmill is the last link to making paint from the days of Dutch master Vermeer
Meet the Dutchman operating the world's last remaining windmill that crushes rocks into pigment for paint as it was done 400 years ago
READING LEVEL: GREEN
Every morning for the past 42 years, Piet Kempenaar has cast a careful eye over the Dutch sky before releasing a brake and “steering” the giant blades of his centuries-old mill into the wind.
To match the force, he adjusts the sails of De Kat (Dutch for The Cat), the world’s last remaining mill using wind power to crush rocks into fine dust and make paint pigment* — just as it was done almost 400 years ago.
Driven by wooden gears, ropes and pulleys*, two massive grinding stones — together weighing 10 tonnes — churn* and crush rocks for hours, until they become colourful pigments with names such as lapis lazuli, terre verte, umber and burnt sienna.
Now retired and leaving most of the paint-making business to his son Robert, Mr Kempenaar still looks like an experienced Dutch “colourman”* in a cap, blue workman’s jacket streaked with pigment dust, and a pipe angled in the corner of his mouth.
Behind him, De Kat, standing on the spot where rocks were first ground into pigment around 1646, creaks and groans as the four giant blades power the grinding stones.
The original mill burnt down in 1782 before being rebuilt. De Kat has been used for a variety of things including a chalk storage space before resuming its rock-crushing duties in 1960.
Mr Kempenaar has leased* De Kat from the local milling association since 1981 for his pigment-making business, which attracts thousands of buyers to Zaanse Schans, north of Amsterdam, every year.
“I am not interested in painting, but I am obsessed with pigments,” the 73-year-old said.
In his rugged hands, Kempenaar holds a block of a famous blue pigment favoured by respected painter Johannes Vermeer, who is described as a Dutch master*.
“Here we have the king of the blue. It’s a half-diamond from Chile or Afghanistan. You’re talking about lapis lazuli, used by Johannes Vermeer,” he said.
“Vermeer had the money — he could pay for it. Back then, this was literally worth its weight in gold”.
The ultramarine blue paint was used for the apron of Vermeer’s famous work The Milkmaid.
Dozens of pigments made at De Kat are neatly stacked on shelves -- terre verte or “green earth” from Verona, dark umber from Cyprus and carmine red, made from grinding up female cochineal insects, from the Canary Islands.
“We grind pigment the old way here. That’s why people from all over the world come to buy from us. It’s unique,” Mr Kempenaar said. “And it hasn’t changed in almost 400 years.”
Experts say De Kat is the last link to the original way of paint-making before the process was industrialised around 1850.
GLOSSARY
- pigment: a substance that gives colour to other materials
- pulleys: a simple machine and comprises of a wheel on a fixed axle, with a groove along the edges to guide a rope or cable. Pulleys are used to reduce the time and energy taken to lift heavy objects
- churn: to move something with great force
- colourman: a person who deals with paint
- leased: to borrow something in exchange for money
- master: an expert
EXTRA READING
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QUICK QUIZ
- What does De Kat mean in English?
- What are the rocks crushed between to make pigment?
- In what year was the windmill first used to make paint?
- Which colour pigment is famously used in Vermeer’s The Milkmaid painting?
- When was the paint industry industrialised?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Simple machines
In this news story, we learn that the windmill is “driven by wooden gears, ropes and pulleys”.
Research to find out how gears and pulley systems work. Draw a simple diagram of each of these with labels and a caption to explain how they operate.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science
2. Extension
Use simple materials that you can gather from school (e.g. cardboard, bottle tops, string, etc.) to create a simple model of either a set of gears or a pulley system.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science
VCOP ACTIVITY
Paint a Picture with Words
Pick one of the pictures from the article and write a descriptive paragraph to share the picture with someone who can not see it for themselves. Take a moment to study the picture and pick out any details you think are worthy of your words.
Remember, if you don’t write about it, they won’t see it. So what is important to share, and how will you explain the picture in as much detail as possible.
Think about the sizes, colours, textures, tones and moods being portrayed.
Read your story back to yourself before sharing it with a classmate