Girl reading a letter by the window, Johannes Vermeer - ca. 1658 from the old master collection

About "Girl reading a letter by the window, Johannes Vermeer - ca. 1658"

About the artwork

The Girl Lettering at the Window is a painting by the 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer from the beginning of his career. It is normally exhibited in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

The unsigned and undated canvas was possibly completed in 1657, but may have been several years later. It is praised for its subtle play with the sunlight that enters the room through the open window. Due to the balanced distribution of light across the various surfaces, the atmosphere, volumes and colours work together to draw attention to the whole for a longer period of time.

In 2018, paint research and x-rays revealed that the overpainting of the wall behind the curtain occurred after Vermeer's death. At the time of repainting, the painting was already decades old. In early 2018, it was decided to carefully remove the overpainting with a scalpel during the restoration.

The original size is 64.5 × 83 cm.

Johannes Vermeer (baptized in Delft, October 31, 1632 - buried there, December 15, 1675) was a Dutch painter of the Golden Age.

Vermeer had a preference for timeless, subdued moments. He remains enigmatic because of his inimitable coloring and bewildering light. Vermeer's paintings, mostly genre pieces and a few history pieces, allegories and cityscapes, are distinguished by a subtle use of colour and ideal composition. He sometimes used expensive pigments and had a great preference for ultramarine and lead-tinged yellow.