''A Lady Writing a Letter'' (also known as ''A Lady Writing'') is an oil on canvas painting attributed to 17th century Dutch painter
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 suc ...
. It is believed to have been completed by artist during his mature phase, in the mid-to-late 1660s. The work is in the collection of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The lady in the painting is shown writing a letter while sitting at a table in a room. She appears to have been interrupted, as she has turned her head away from the letter to look towards the viewer, while she continues to hold the quill in her right hand. She is dressed elegantly in a lemon-yellow morning jacket and wears a necklace with ten pearls and two pearl earrings. The number of compositional elements in the painting are limited and the focus is the woman's figure and the sparse objects in the woman and the table are brought near to the picture plane, which emphasizes the directness of her gaze. All small objects in the painting are placed on the table. This concentration of small forms stand in contrasts with the large forms used in the rest of the composition, which create a geometric framework for the figure.
On the back of the wall is a painting, which covers two-thirds of the width of the composition. The painting of which only a part is shown in the picture depicts a large string instrument, possibly a
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
. It is known from the inventory of Vermeer's estate that he owned a
vanitas
A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-known are ''v ...
still life with a double bass and skull. Based on a comparison of the depicted work and its description in the inventory of Vermeer's estate with the known vanitas still lifes of the Dutch painter
Cornelis van der Meulen
Cornelis van der Meulen or Cornelis Vermeulen (1642, Dordrecht – 1691, Stockholm), was a Dutch painter who after training in the Dutch Republic had a career in Sweden where he became a court painter.Pieter van Ruijven (1624–1674). From him it passed possibly by inheritance to his wife, Maria de Knuijt ied 1681 From her it then possibly passed by inheritance to her daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven and from her possibly by inheritance to her husband, Jacobus Abrahamsz. Dissius. After his death the work was auctioned in Amsterdam on 16 May 1696. Until the early nineteenth century, the work remained in the hands of several Dutch owners until it was bought in 1827 by the Belgian politician François de Robiano (1778–1836) in whose family it remained until it was bought in 1907 by the American banker
John Pierpont Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became know ...