''Woman Reading a Letter'' ( nl, Brieflezende vrouw)Woman Reading a Letter, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1663

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

. Retrieved on 15 February 2015. is a painting by the

Dutch Golden Age painter Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Repub ...

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , #Pronunciation of name, see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period Painting, painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class, middle-class life. ...

, produced in around 1663. It has been part of the collection of the City of Amsterdam since the Van der Hoop bequest in 1854, and in the

in Amsterdam since it opened in 1885, the first Vermeer it acquired.

Composition

The central element of the painting is a woman in blue standing in front of a window (not depicted) reading a letter. The woman appears to be pregnant, although many have argued that the woman's rounded figure is simply a result of the fashions of the day. Although the woman's loose clothing may be suggestive, pregnancy was very rarely depicted in art during this period. While the contents of the letter are not visible, the composition of the painting is revealing. The map of the

County of Holland The County of Holland was a State of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part ...

and West FrieslandJames A. Welu, 1975, "Vermeer: His Cartographic Sources", ''The Art Bulletin'' 57: 529-547 in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on the wall behind the woman has been interpreted as suggesting that the letter she reads was written by a traveling husband. Alternatively, the box of pearls barely visible on the table before the woman might suggest a lover as pearls are sometimes a symbol of vanity. The very action of letter-reading reflects a thematic pattern throughout Vermeer's works, as a common private moment becomes revealing of the human condition. The painting is unique among Vermeer's interiors in that no fragment of corner, floor or ceiling can be seen.Snow (1994), 167. The composition and the female figure are similar to Vermeer's 1657-59 painting ''

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window ''Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window'' (Dutch: ''Brieflezend meisje bij het venster''), also known as ''Lady reading at an open window,'' is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Completed in approximately 1657–1659, ...

''. This work has similarities to his similarly-dated ''

Woman with a Pearl Necklace ''Woman with a Pearl Necklace'' by Johannes Vermeer is a Dutch Golden Age painting of about 1664. Painted in oils on canvas, Johannes Vermeer portrayed a young Dutch woman, most likely of upper-class descent, dressing herself with two yellow ribb ...

'' and ''

Woman Holding a Balance ''Woman Holding a Balance'' (Dutch: ''Vrouw met weegschaal''), also called ''Woman Testing a Balance'', is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. At one time the pai ...

''. The map, drawn by , was published in 1620 and reprinted by

Willem Blaeu Willem Janszoon Blaeu (; 157121 October 1638), also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher. Along with his son Johannes Blaeu, Willem is considered one of the notable figures of the Netherlandis ...

in 1621; it also appears in Vermeer's ''

Officer and Laughing Girl ''Officer and Laughing Girl'', also known as ''Officer and a Laughing Girl'', ''Officer With a Laughing Girl'' or ''De Soldaat en het Lachende Meisje'', was painted by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in around 1657. It was painted in oil on canv ...

''. The latter however, shows a polychromatic map while ''Woman Reading a Letter'' depicts a monochromatic print. That such a map really existed is proven by a monochromatic exemplar preserved in the collection of the

Westfries Museum The Westfries Museum is a museum of regional history established in the Dutch city of Hoorn. It was opened on 10 January 1880 and has been established in a monumental building dating to 1632. This building originally belonged to the Gecommitt ...

Hoorn Hoorn () is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers ( ...

References

External links

* {{ACArt 1660s paintings Genre paintings by Johannes Vermeer Paintings in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Portraits of women Maps in art Cartography in the Dutch Republic Early modern Netherlandish cartography

Composition

See also

References

Further reading

External links