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Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Johannes Vermeer, 1650s

Johannes Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window shows a young woman standing in profile at a window, absorbed in a letter held up to the light. The painting dates from the 1650s and belongs to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, where it is associated with the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.

Where to see it

The painting is held by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and is located at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. Before planning a trip, check the official website of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden for current display status, opening hours and ticket information, as works can be moved, rehung or temporarily unavailable.

What to look for in person

The face in the window glass

Look at the open casement on the left. In its leaded panes, Vermeer painted a faint reflection of the young woman's face, turned more toward the viewer than the figure herself, who stands in profile. The reflection offers a second view of her that the main figure withholds. Move close enough to find it, then step back to see how the red curtain draped over the window and the cool daylight falling across her forehead and the letter hold the left side of the picture together.

The Cupid on the back wall

The back wall now carries a large painting-within-the-painting showing a standing Cupid. For a long time this area appeared as a plain, pale wall, because the Cupid had been painted over. Conservation work in Dresden removed that overpaint, and the image is visible again. Its presence shapes how many viewers read the scene: a figure associated with love hangs above a woman absorbed in a letter, suggesting what the letter may concern. Notice how much of the upper canvas it now fills and how it changes the balance of the room.

Barriers in the foreground

Before your eye reaches the girl, it has to pass a table covered with a heavy patterned carpet, pushed into folds, with a tilted bowl of fruit spilling toward you. On the right, a green curtain hangs from a rod running along the top of the picture, as if just drawn aside. These elements place a barrier between you and her private moment. Look closely at the fruit and the carpet for small, bright dabs of paint that catch the light, a feature often discussed in connection with Vermeer's interest in optical effects.

About the painting

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, the Delft painter known for quiet interiors in which one or two figures are absorbed in everyday tasks. The work dates from the 1650s and measures 83 cm high by 64.5 cm wide, a moderate size that rewards standing at a comfortable distance first and then moving closer for detail. It is part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and is located at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.

The composition is built around light. Daylight enters from the open window on the left, falls on the woman's face, her hair and the paper in her hands, and spreads across the pale back wall. Vermeer leaves her expression ambiguous; we do not know what the letter says, and the painting does not tell us. Letters were a recurring theme in Dutch genre painting of the period, and Vermeer returned to the subject in several later works, which makes this picture a useful starting point for anyone following his development.

The painting is also notable for its history of changes. The Cupid now seen on the back wall had been covered by later overpaint, and its removal during conservation in Dresden significantly altered how the picture looks and how its subject is read. Visitors who know older reproductions showing an empty wall may be surprised by the difference.

In front of the work, take time with three zones: the reflective window on the left, the figure and wall in the center, and the crowded foreground of carpet, fruit and curtain that frames the scene and keeps the viewer at a respectful distance.

Key facts

More by Johannes Vermeer

• The Concert
• The Girl with the Wine Glass
• The Lacemaker — Louvre Museum
• Girl Interrupted at her Music — The Frick Collection
• Woman with a Pearl Necklace — Gemäldegalerie Berlin
• Woman in Blue Reading a Letter — Rijksmuseum
• The Milkmaid — Rijksmuseum
• Girl with a Pearl Earring — Mauritshuis
• A Young Woman seated at a Virginal — National Gallery
• The Music Lesson
• A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal — National Gallery
• Diana and her Nymphs — Mauritshuis

Sources

• Wikidata Q700251
• www.skd.museum
• gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum