Lady writing a letter with her maid
By Silvia del Pozo
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Year: c. 1670–71 Type: Oil on
canvas Dimensions:
72.2 cm × 59.5 cm (28.4 in × 23.4 in)
Location: National Gallery of Ireland
Messenger for the lady and the lover.Inner restless and boredom.Similar to Gabriel Metsu’s painting.
The maid
Inspiration from the Lacemaker.
The patch of bright white wall contrasts her right hand silhouette.
The Lady
Suggests a quality of bourgeois life.It is an ideal as the Dutch preferred
floor made of wood.
The floor
Maybe one that the lady has received or a draft that she rejected.
The letterThe carpet• Decorative designs reduced to a sort of calligraphic shorthand.• Knotty texture erased by an exceptionally smooth
The chair and the objects tossed on the floor might indicate that some action would have just taken place.
The chairThe floor tiles•This is a tribute to his beloved Delft including a row of locally-made floor tiles.
It functions as a familiar pictorial device called repoussoir.
This means a contrast by placing a large figure or object in the foreground of a painting.
The green curtain
Parrhasius and Zeuxis
It establishes one of the three strong diagonal lines.
It softens the rectiliniar design of the composition.
The white curtain
The leadings of the window seem to be identical in design with the ones in the Music Lesson but in this picture the central design has been colored.
The window
It is a Finding of Moses. It follows the same technique of pictures
within-a-picture.The same Moses appears in the Astronomer.
The painting
This painting has been stolen two times in the last twenty-five years.
In 1974 by the IRA. It was recovered a week later.
In 1986 by a gang led by the Dublin organized crime gang leader Martin Cahill. Only after more than seven years of secret negotiations and international detective work was the painting recovered.
As a curiosity…