''Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid'' ( nl, Schrijvende vrouw met dienstbode) is a painting by the

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artist

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

, completed in 1670–1671 and held in the National Gallery of Ireland, in

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. The work shows a middle-class woman attended by a housemaid who is presumably acting as messenger and go-between for the lady and her lover. The work is seen as a bridge between the quiet restraint and self-containment of Vermeer's work of the 1660s and his relatively cooler work of the 1670s. It may have been partly inspired by Ter Borch's painting ''Woman Sealing a Letter''. The painting's canvas was almost certainly cut from the same bolt used for '' Woman with a Lute''. ''Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid'' is the first of the artist's experiments with centrifugal composition; where the focus is not only from the centre of the canvas.Wheelock, 116 In addition, it is his third work in which the drama and dynamic is not centred on a single figure.Bonafoux, 124 The maid is shown standing in the mid-ground, behind her lady, with her hands crossed and waiting for the letter to be completed. The positions of their bodies indicate that the two women are disconnected. The folded arms of the maid seem outwardly as an attempt to display a sense of self-containment, however she is detached from her lady both emotionally and psychologically. The maid's gaze towards the half-visible window indicates an inner restlessness and boredom, as she waits impatiently for the messenger to carry her lady's letter away.Pollock, 215 Some art historians dispute the absoluteness of this view; according to Pascal Bonafoux, while complicity is not "indicated by a look or a smile" from either woman, the mere fact of her presence during such an intimate act as the composition of a love letter indicates at least a degree of intimacy between the two. The painting visits many of Vermeer's usual painterly motifs; in particular his obsession with the inside/outside axis of interior spaces, and through his description of the tiled floor as well as the verticals of the dresses, window frame and back wall painting, his interest in

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and abstract form. Vermeer had experimented with this painterly device earlier in his career, notably in his ''

View of Delft A photograph taken in 2019 from approximately the point where Vermeer painted the painting. ''View of Delft'' ( nl, Gezicht op Delft) is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted ca. 1659–1661. The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is ...

'', '' The Lacemaker'' and '' The Art of Painting''. ''Lady Writing'' was stolen on 27 April 1974, along with a

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, two Gainsboroughs and three Rubens from the

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home of Sir Alfred Beit by armed members of the

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. Led by the British heiress Rose Dugdale, the thieves used screwdrivers to cut the paintings from their frames. However, the Vermeer and other works were recovered eight days later at a cottage in

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. The work was again taken in 1986 by a gang led by the Dublin gangster Martin Cahill.Dolnick, Edward.
How Ireland got back its Vermeer
. ''

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'', 31 July 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2009. Along with a number of other art-works, Cahill held the painting for a ransom of IR£20 million. However, the money was not paid, and Cahill lacked contacts or knowledge to otherwise pass it on to international art thieves. According to a RTÉ report, Cahill's taste in art extended only to "cheery scenes like the cheap print in his living room of swans on a river, but he believed the stolen masterpieces would bring him a fortune." The painting was eventually recovered during an August 1993 exchange at Antwerp airport which turned out to be a sting operation organised by the Irish police. It had already been donated ''

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'' to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in Dublin.Hart, 58; 193Burns, John & Tallant, Nicola.
Double theft reveals secret of Vermeer
. ''

'', 30 May 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2009.

Notes

Sources

* Bonafoux, Pascal. ''Vermeer''. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1992. *Hart, Matthew. ''The Irish Game''. London: Random House, 2004. *Huerta, Robert. ''Vermeer and Plato: Painting the Ideal''. Bucknell University Press, 2005. * Pollock, Griselda. ''Differencing the canon''. Routledge, 1999. *Wheelock, Arthur K. ''Vermeer: The Complete Works''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997.

External links

*
Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid
' at the website of the National Gallery of Ireland {{DEFAULTSORT:Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid Genre paintings by Johannes Vermeer 1670s paintings Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland Portraits of women 1670s in the Dutch Republic Stolen works of art Beit collection

Notes

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Further reading

External links