Woman Reading a Letter (Vermeer)
- Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
- Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,471 articles in the main category, and specifying
|topic=
will aid in categorization. - Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
- You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is
Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:La Femme en bleu lisant une lettre]]; see its history for attribution.
- You may also add the template
{{Translated|fr|La Femme en bleu lisant une lettre}}
to the talk page. - For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Woman Reading a Letter | |
---|---|
Dutch: Brieflezende vrouw | |
Artist | Johannes Vermeer |
Year | c. 1663[1] |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Movement | Dutch Golden Age painting |
Dimensions | 46.6 cm × 39.1 cm (18.3 in × 15.4 in) |
Location | Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam |
Woman Reading a Letter (Dutch: Brieflezende vrouw)[1][2] is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, 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 Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam since it opened in 1885, the first Vermeer it acquired.[3]
Composition
The central element of the painting is a woman in blue standing in front of a window (not depicted) reading a letter.[4] 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.[5] Although the woman's loose clothing may be suggestive, pregnancy was very rarely depicted in art during this period.[6]
While the contents of the letter are not visible, the composition of the painting is revealing. The map of the County of Holland and West Friesland[7] in the Netherlands on the wall behind the woman has been interpreted as suggesting that the letter she reads was written by a traveling husband.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]
The painting is unique among Vermeer's interiors in that no fragment of corner, floor or ceiling can be seen.[11]
The composition and the female figure are similar to Vermeer's 1657-59 painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. This work has similarities to his similarly-dated Woman with a Pearl Necklace and Woman Holding a Balance. The map, drawn by Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode [nl], was published in 1620 and reprinted by Willem Blaeu 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 at Hoorn.[7]
See also
- Dutch Golden Age painting
- List of paintings by Johannes Vermeer
- The Woman in Blue (Ruth Galloway #8), a novel by Ellie Griffiths
References
- ^ a b Woman Reading a Letter, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1663, Rijksmuseum. Retrieved on 15 February 2015.
- ^ (in Dutch) Brieflezende vrouw, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1663, Rijksmuseum. Retrieved on 15 February 2015.
- ^ Barker, Emma; Nick Webb; Kim Woods (1999). The changing status of the artist. Yale University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-300-07742-1. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ White, James Boyd (1 April 2003). The Edge of Meaning. University of Chicago Press. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-226-89480-5. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ Snow, Edward A. (1994). A study of Vermeer. University of California Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-520-07132-2. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ De Winkel, Marieke (1998). "Interpretation of Dress in Vermeer's Paintings". Studies in the History of Art. 55: 326–330. JSTOR 42622616.
- ^ a b James A. Welu, 1975, "Vermeer: His Cartographic Sources", The Art Bulletin 57: 529-547
- ^ White (2003), 265.
- ^ Schneider, Norbert (17 May 2000). Vermeer, 1632-1675: veiled emotions. Taschen. p. 49. ISBN 978-3-8228-6323-7. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ Baker, Christopher (January 2003). Vermeer, Jan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866203-7. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ Snow (1994), 167.
Further reading
- Liedtke, Walter A. (2001). Vermeer and the Delft School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-973-4.
- Weber, Gregor J.M. (2013). Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. Translated by Hoyle, Michael. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum. ISBN 978-94-91714-06-1.
External links
- Media related to Woman Reading a Letter at Wikimedia Commons
- v
- t
- e
- List of works
- Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c. 1655)
- Saint Praxedis (c. 1655)
- Diana and Her Companions (c. 1653–1656)
- The Procuress (1656)
- A Girl Asleep (c. 1657)
- Officer and Laughing Girl (c. 1657)
- The Little Street (c. 1657–1658)
- The Milkmaid (c. 1657–1658)
- Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (c. 1657–1659)
- Girl Interrupted at Her Music (c. 1658–1659)
- The Girl with the Wine Glass (c. 1659–1660)
- The Wine Glass (c. 1660)
- View of Delft (c. 1660–1661)
- Woman with a Water Jug (c. 1660–1662)
- Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1662–1663)
- Woman with a Lute (c. 1662–1663)
- Woman Reading a Letter (c. 1663)
- The Concert (c. 1664)
- Woman with a Pearl Necklace (c. 1664)
- The Music Lesson (c. 1662–1665)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665)
- A Lady Writing a Letter (c. 1665)
- Girl with a Red Hat (c. 1665–1666)
- Study of a Young Woman (c. 1665–1667)
- Mistress and Maid (c. 1667)
- The Art of Painting (c. 1666–1668)
- The Astronomer (c. 1668)
- The Geographer (c. 1668–1669)
- The Lacemaker (c. 1669–1670)
- The Love Letter (c. 1669–1670)
- Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid (c. 1670–1671)
- The Allegory of Faith (c. 1670–1672)
- Lady Seated at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672)
- Lady Standing at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672)
- A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals (c. 1670–1672)
- The Guitar Player (c. 1672)
- Girl with a Flute (c. 1665–1670)
- The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (1934 painting)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999 novel)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003 film)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (2008 play)
- Maria Thins (mother-in-law)
- Maria de Knuijt and Pieter van Ruijven (patrons)
- Han van Meegeren
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
- Delft School (painting)
- Tronie
- Dutch Golden Age painting
- Hockney–Falco thesis
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft
- Vermeer Centre
- All the Vermeers in New York (1990 film)
- Writing to Vermeer (1999 opera)
- Chasing Vermeer (2004 novel)
- Vermeer's Hat (2008 history book)
- Tim's Vermeer (2013 documentary film)