''Woman Reading a Letter'' ()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 S ...

. 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 Republi ...

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...

, 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 Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire from its inception until 1433. From 1433 onward it was part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading pro ...

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

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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 painting, Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Completed ...

''. 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''. The map, drawn by Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode, 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 Netherlan ...

in 1621; it also appears in Vermeer's '' Officer and Laughing Girl''. 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, in Hoorn, Netherlands, is a history museum of 17th century Hoorn and the region. History The museum was opened on 10 January 1880 and has been established in a monumental building dating to 1632. The museum building origi ...

Hoorn Hoorn () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is the largest town an ...

References

External links

* {{ACArt 1660s paintings Genre paintings by Johannes Vermeer Paintings in 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