Woman Reading a Letter
c. 1663
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
h 46.5cm × w 39cm × d 6.5cm
Classification
painting
Museum
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
About this artwork
In a quiet, private moment, a young woman stands, engrossed in reading a letter. It is morning, and she is still wearing her blue nightrobe. All the other colours are subordinate to its radiant lapis lazuli; yellow and red hardly make an appearance. Vermeer rendered the different effects of the cool light precisely. For example, he was the first artist to try soft grey for flesh, and to paint the shadows on the wall light blue.
About the Artist
Johannes Vermeer · 1632–1675
Johannes Vermeer, baptized on October 31, 1632, in Delft, Dutch Republic, was born into a middle-class family; his father, Reijnier Janszoon, worked as an innkeeper and art dealer, while his mother, Digna Baltens, hailed from Antwerp. After his father's death in 1652, Vermeer took over the family art business. In 1653, he married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic woman from a wealthier family, converti...