The Little Street

If the painting itself is already imbued with a somewhat magic character, the mystery surrounding the history of the real “Little Street” makes it even more special.

Though the scarcity of evidence have led to doubts about whether this street ever existed at all, there is a theory that has been consistently regarded. This claim points Voldersgracht as being the place in which this scene might have taken place, for the gutter that one of the women is standing by suggests that the canal was very close by.

As stated in Essential Vermeer ( http://www.essentialvermeer.com/maps/delft/vermeer’s_neighborhood.html , accessed on June 8 ), the house on the left was the Old Men’s House, and Vermeer decided to paint the street after knowing that it would be demolished to house the headquartes of the Guild of Painters (St. Luke’s Guild)

love letter story

I have written a story about the picture “The love letter”. It is about  a girl, a lover, feelings and of course a love letter:

THE LOVE LETTER

She was so nervous. Jane, her maid, had just given her a letter with a stamp that she could recognize at the moment. The letter was from her lover, Jan Stijn. She had not received one during one month and she was very concerned because he usually wrote her every week. He was in a travel to Asia, through the Maldive Islands. She knew that it was a dangerous travel because he did not know what was going to find there.

In these four weeks without any notice from him she had become absorbed in a deeply sadness that only could endure thanks to the music. Her lute was her ally and its sound helped her to disappear from the reality. Jane, her maid was the only friend she had. She helped her with everything, she was like a mother, like a mother she never had. The tuberculosis had killed her when she was very young. And her father was always very occupied with political problems. She spent her time with her lute, with Jane and also with her other passion, painting.

She usually painted when she was sad, so in this last month she had painted one of her favourite paintings. She painted it thinking on Jan, of course. One day she had a dream, a very disturbing nightmare. She dreamt that there was a very strong storm and the ship in which Jan traveled was in trouble. That day she woke up very agitated, because she had a very awful premonition. Then, she began imagine how would be the story to represent in her picture. It is a very severe storm, the sky is black and it roar like a fierce animal. Everything is darkness and solitude. The ship moves its sails like fierce claws with fighting spirit. The only person in the ship is Jan, he is brave and decisive. He knows that the only thing that motivates him to battle is his love, he has always her in mind, sometimes it seems that her face appears like a picture in the clouds, for giving him strength. So at the end, in her picture the big ship represented Jan, a brave warrior who fought for what he most wanted. And the storm represented the bad patches, the worries and the risks that everyone has to live until getting the most esteemed love.

While she painted the picture she had a lump in her stomach, she had the sensation that she was not going to see him again, the days went by and she fell more and more in a deeply melancholy. So the same day she finished the painting, she hung it in the wall, and decided not to think on it, and boost herself. She began to play the lute; she had set aside it since. The sound began to spread everywhere, the sadness that covered every corner from the house began to disappear and suddenly when this happiness had begun to flourish Jane, came into the room with the letter. She was full of euphoria; her heartbeats began to increase as her heart was going to explode. The letter was from Jan, after all this suffering, at the end, she had notices from him, but better not to celebrate anything because the letter could be for giving bad news.

She was trembling, she had almost any force to open the envelope, at the same time she was opening it, her eyes were full of tears. Tears that were flooding her mind and drowning her heart. At the time she took out the letter from the envelope and she could see the handwriting of her lover, she began to calm herself.

“ Dear Love;

Sorry for this horrible delay, I hope you will forgive me. This last month has been very hard. The heat is incredibly suffocating. Some of our men had fallen ill. Appart from that, the landscape is wonderful, I´d never seen anything similar, the blue from the sky, the color of the flowers that dress every path, the exotic animals, the lowly people  that give modesty off everywhere we go. I am sure you would enjoy it if you were here with me. Maybe someday we can come back together, we alone, you and me. But now you have only think that I am happy because I know that in spite of the distance you are also happy, our love is over everything in this world. I remember everyday each word, each look, each kiss, each feeling, each caress you have given me and it gives me hope to face up this moments I cannot be with you. I would like to tell you everything I feel but you only need to listen to your heart to know it because your heart and mine are only one.

Every moment I spend thinking of you thousands of emotions travel all around my body when you are not with me and even you aren´t,  your memory makes me amaze but anyway I prefer to excite myself with your presence and not with your memory.

You takes up my mind, you are the owner of every of my thoughts, of every of my passion moments, of every of my feelings, I would like this love lasts for the eternity, that in one million of years you and me would keep still together looking ourselves with the same love and the same tenderness we make it now. I know it could be possible because we need each one, we are accomplices, we do not need words, in fact, silence says everything.

I will fight always for our love, we will be together for our lives, we have learnt to adorate ourselves like no one ever could love. I need you because you are my Juliet, my angel, my lover, my best admirer, my inamorata, my passion…

With this letter I try to demonstrate that you are my existence and the only thing I need in this life, loving you is my present, a present that I only have.

You love,

Jan Stijn”

The letter was full of tears after she finished reading it, now she feels that she could live again, she was full of hope. Jan was alive and she was in love. It was the most incredibly love letter a woman could received. After this moment, she stood up and opened the window to breathe the warm wind that blew through it. She thought she could notice his love, this passional love. She knew that he was near, she could feel him because as Jan have said in his letter they are like one person, one heart one feeling.

Now she had forgotten every bad moment she had spent all this long month. She turned herself and looked to the painting in the wall, the stormy love, it was the name she gave to it, and laughed. Now she knew that there were not storms between their love.

A strong breeze came through the window. She noticed that it was familiar. She leant out of the window and in the long path in front of the big house, she could discern the figure of a man, as he was walking nearer, she was totally convinced. He was Jan. when he crossed the fence of the house; the dogs began to bark of happiness. She came unstuck from the window and went downstairs, crossed the corridor to the principal door and the garden with the same speed as the wind. When they were coming closer she noticed that her heart was about to explode, at the end they melted in the most fabulous embrace. Now they are only one.

The end

Woman in blue reading a letter

This painting has been chosen for the “English for Specific Purposes” class by Jurgi Erquicia.

ABOUT THE WORK

“Vermeer’s ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’ seems so harmonious in color, theme and mood that it is hard to imagine any other compositional solution. Indeed, as in others of his paintings, one has difficulty imagining Vermeer at work, as an artist who had to somehow compose and make tangible a concept he had conceived in his mind. Part of the problem in visualizing Vermeer’s working procedure stems from the lack of available information. No drawings, prints or unfinished paintings-indeed, no records of commissions-offer clues to his intent or aspects of his working process.”

Look Again and Tell Me What You See

“Looking at a painting should be like looking through a lens. We should sense the mystery of the world—how much we ordinarily do not see.”

Johannes Vermeer (Delft, 1632-1675)

Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window – Poem

Afternoon light falls

on ochres and reds and pale golds.

Velvets and linens and wools

sway heavily in the light

breeze that passes through

this bower of abundance.

The letter she holds has been read before.

Pulling taut the wrinkled sheet she reads

again what she could now recite.

The word on which her gaze falls so intently

reach from the page like a familiar touch,

tender and faint as the delicate script

bleached by the light of this autumn afternoon.

Perhaps it is from an absent husband, running

the trade that brought these rugs a thousand miles,

and bought this fruit, best of harvest, for her table.

Perhaps not. It may be she who has gone away.

Given in marriage beyond what she knew to hope for,

taken from the sound of known feet on the village path,

from a circle of friends gathered to gossip

at the brookside after the day’s tasks,

from the mother who writes her now, wondering

whether, in her grand house, among her servants

and soft garments, she still cares for news from home.

Not even her mother knows how much

she cares: how she is glad that the old, blind cobbler’s

young apprentice is kind to him, and repairs

without a word the vagrant stitches on sole and tongue,

and calls him father; that her sister is learning

to weave and has taken her place reading verses

after the evening meal; that the little hunchback still rides

on the peddler’s cart and laughs back

at the children who laugh at him.

The streets of this city are silent as her ear strains

for familiar sounds. No woman’s voice summons her

in this household where, as yet, there is no babe

to cry or nurse to scold. The man who adores her

knows her only as his lady.

None of them knows how she would like, some evenings,

to lay her coiffed head on a breast broader and softer than her own;

to bake, morning, in a kitchen crowded with bowls and chatter;

to strip off her fine-stitched shoes and wade in a muddy brook

in secret, skirts gathered, with a giggling friend

in the heat and falling light of the afternoon.

In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer’s Women by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

New York Times film review Girl With a Pearl Earring

 

I thought it would be interesting to read a film review of ‘Girl with a Parl Earring’ to see how it was recieved and percieved by the critics. Below is an extract of thefilm review taken from New York Times online:

 

At the start of ”Girl With a Pearl Earring,” Griet (Scarlett Johansson) is shown peeling an onion, an image as metaphor rarely seen outside first-semester filmmaking classes. The determination visible in such an effort communicates Importance Writ Large. And the film, adapted by Olivia Hetreed from Tracy Chevalier’s novel, does have a great subject: the story surrounding an artwork shrouded in mystery and a project that ruins a woman’s reputation yet ensures her a place in history.

This film, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, is the imagined tale of Griet, a maid who became the muse of Johannes Vermeer and the subject of his painting ”Girl With a Pearl Earring.” Ms. Johansson is photographed so that her skin is as opalescent as her earring, but the movie is opaque. It is an earnest, obvious melodrama with no soul, filled with the longing silences that come after a sigh.

 

Yet the care that has gone into making ”Earring,” a dexterous and absorbing visual re-creation of the lighting and the look that Vermeer achieved in his work, is a tribute to the director Peter Webber’s own group of artisans, the cinematographer Eduardo Serra and the production designer Ben van Os. The gorgeous score, by Alexandre Desplat, brushes in a haunted gloom that gives the picture life where none seems to exist. This is the kind of film that would prompt the movie industry trade papers to say ”technical credits above par.”

Taken from : http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/

My painting pf Vermeer

According to Arthur K. Wheelock, “Vermeer’s ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’ seems so harmonious in color, theme and mood that it is hard to imagine any other compositional solution. Indeed, as in others of his paintings, one has difficulty imagining Vermeer at work, as an artist who had to somehow compose and make tangible a concept he had conceived in his mind. Part of the problem in visualizing Vermeer’s working procedure stems from the lack of available information. No drawings, prints or unfinished paintings-indeed, no records of commissions-offer clues to his intent or aspects of his working process.”

Taken from: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/woman_in_blue_reading_a_letter.html

Vermeer: Inspiration for other artists

VERSION OF “THE LACEMAKER” BY ANTONIO GUMAN CAPEL

Here we can see a picture of Antonio Guzman Capel based on the picture “The Lacemaker” by Johannes Vermeer, for whom he seems to feel admiration.

You can know more of this author and his works in http://www.antoniocapel.com/

DEPICTION OF “GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING” BY SCOTT WADE

It is amazing to see how this artist is able to make of dirty cars authentic pieces of art. I really admire him. Here we can see his depiction of Vermeer’s picture:

This is the way he describes his “experience”:

Felt a little bold taking on a Vermeer (not sure why I had no qualms about Da Vinci or Van Gogh), but I couldn’t resist “Girl With A Pearl Earring.” This one was tricky. I did it over a previous drawing that had been rained on. There were places where the dust had been caked on, and it didn’t brush off evenly at all. I had to kind of stab the clods with a bristle brush to break it up enough to get some intermediate tones. That’s what gives this one a sort of stipple effect.“

In the third picture as he describes we can see “the parts that were caked on by rain, and the tones and line work look so different from the inside.”

You can know more of him and his works in http://www.dirtycarart.com/

A young woman sleeping

This work was done by Petaundklau last year.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) (1656-1657)

SOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Obras

I have to take my time to enter the little key in the lock because of all the things that I am taking with me. I have taken some plates from the dinning room that were left by the lady of the house, a carpet from the hall that I have to wash, several glasses and a mug with wine from the welcome party of the baby. I leave everything on the table of the kitchen before doing the washing up.

I still have my new clothes on; I did not even take off the expensive earrings that the master gave to me in my birthday. It was supposed to be a present but I consider it more a consolation prize. I have worked as a maid in this family for ten years. The house is not very big and that makes it easier but now I am also in charge of the children. The nanny left a couple of years ago and the master did not want to take another maid because of the gossiping of other aristocrats, so I had to take all that burden on me.

I sit down on a leather covered chair. I take my hands into my head and I rub my forehead with my hands in a vain attempt to erase every sign of grief. I do not feel better and I gaze the mug of wine shining in the light that comes from the window. I can take just a sip of wine before I wash the carpet. It will be just to taste the unattainable flavour of happiness. I pour the wine in a glass with golden brim. I approach the glass so slowly that I make a ritual of it. I can see the deep purple drink standing still, so dark that I feel that I am looking into my own soul.

I drink the glass of wine. I look again into the bottle. I do not think that neither the master nor the mistress will miss the wine that was left from the party because yesterday was a very happy day and I could notice that in the master’s breath. It was a welcome party for the last child in the house. It is a lovely little girl. She has bright blue eyes and her skin is as smooth as the touch of a cloud. I like listening to her gurgling in her cot and I sometimes get up at night just to see her sleeping.

I am absorbed by my own thoughts and I have not noticed that I had almost drunk the whole mug of wine. I feel calmer while the wine slips through my throat.  I lay my head in my hand slightly bent to the right while I caress the cashmere like tablecloth. I remember leaving the door opened. In other days I would have closed it but there was nothing to hide now.  I leave myself in Morpheus’ arms.

Memories come to my mind. I can see myself. I was young. It was my first year in the house. My blue eyes were alive and I could look into the daylight without feeling fear.  Even a shy smile could be outlined in my face. I was brought into the house because my father had died and I was the elder of five children, so I had to help my mother earning money for the family. I was quite happy that I could find a job. But that entire dream turned into a nightmare quite soon.

I had noticed that the mistress of the house had changed, she began behaving strangely. She was like a little child, vulnerable and disable. This brought so much sadness and sorrow into the house. The master also changed. But he changed towards me. He began looking at me from the doorframe while I was working or taking care of the children. Several times he touched smoothly my hand in such an inattentive way that it could seem nothing but an accident if it would not have been accompanied by a lewd glance.  I could not understand why he did this and I was not sure whether all that was just part of my imagination.

I got my answer one night.  I was almost asleep in my bedroom next to the kitchen when I heard that someone was approaching the door. The door handle was moving while my pupils were becoming bigger in fear.  I saw a shadow of a man. I could not move, the fear had paralyzed all my muscles as if I was in the middle of the freezing Artic.  He moved closer to my bed. He took off his pants and he pulled out the rough blanket. I wanted to shout, to escape, to run away from there, I wanted to fight the threatening figure but I could just close my eyes. Even my blood was inert and I held my breath to prevent my lungs from being spoiled with the foul air in the room.

This did not end up that night. It was hell coming to earth every night. I was raped during nine years in the eyes of a mad wife and of three little children. There was a time when my blood thickened and I had no tears to wipe, no smile and no brightness in my blue eyes. The girl was my only salvation. Nine months did the whole family keep the secret. It was not difficult to keep it because the mistress did not go out of the house. The pain of those nine years was nothing compared to that of watching my own child in the arms of others.

A noise of breaking glass awakens me alarmed. I see pieces of glass in my hand and blood is flowing from them. So many things come to my mind in a second. I can hear the little girl crying. Oh little child of mine, do not cry for your unhappy mother, it will be better to end up with all this as soon as possible. I slit my wrists with the already broken pieces of glass. I lay again my head in my hand while blood is slipping on my arm. What is done can not be undone

This lines were posted last year by Eider Zorrilla English Philology student.

 

 

Poem on The Milkmaid by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

The poem is taken from Marilyn’s ‘In Quiet Light’, which was published 8 years ago. This book is full of poems on the different Vermeer’s paintings, and this is the one on mine. It’s nice to have a look at them and see another different way of describing the works.

(As you already know, some of these poems are included in our book)

There is no flattery here: this thick-muscled,

broad-bottomed girl has milked cows at

dawn and carried sloshing pails

hung from a yoke on shoulders

broadened to the task. She kneaded

fat mounds of dough, sinking heavy fists deep

into voluptuous bread, innocent

and sensuous as a child in spring mud.

Evenings she mends and patches

the coarse wool of her bodice, smelling

her own sweat, sweet like grass and dung

in the barn or like warm milk

fresh from the udder.

 

Her world is grained and gritty, deep-

textured, rough-hewn, earth-toned, solid,

simple and crude. Reed and brass and clay,

wheat and flax and plaster turned to human use

have not come far from the loamy fields

where they were mined and gathered. The things

she handles are round and square, though-

fibered and strong, familiar as flesh to the touch.

 

The jug rests in her hand like a baby’s

bottom. She bends to her task like a mother

tending her child, hand and eye trained

to this work, heart left to its pondering.

 

How like tenderness, this look

of complete attention, how like a prayer

that blesses these loaves, this milk

(round like this belly, full like this breast),

given daily into her keeping, this handmaid

on whom the light falls,

haloed in white, hallowed by the gaze

that sees her thus, heavy, thick-lipped,

weathered and earthbound, blessed

and full of grace.

 

 

Essay for Claire on The Milkmaid

 

It was just another spring morning for her. Once again, she woke up very early in the morning and walked towards the market in order to buy the fresh milk and the fresh dough. Going to the market every morning was not an easy task for her, as she was a country girl, who had to travel to the big city and made a living. She was used to milk the cow, because she would help his father every single morning back in their farm.

 

She worked as a maid in a wealthy family and although she had been working there for some years, she still missed a lot her humble way of living. She was known around the city as the milkmaid, though her real name was Tanneke.

 

She was provided with food and clothes and had her own room in the house, that was the way in which the wealthy family payed her services at the house. That morning she was wearing the yellow long-sleeved rustic garment with blue stripes on it and the only skirt she had, which was covered with a dark blue apron. As she was still young and not married, she had to wear a white shawl covering her hair.

 

She was tired of working day after day and night after night, pleasing the others and not herself; going to the market, cooking, cleaning, washing, serving, watching after the kids … the list of the tasks never came to an end in that house. There was no time for having a rest; no time was left even to breath. However, she never showed any bad face or gesture. She tried to do her best each time. Whenever she felt exausted, instead of stopping doing things, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and kept on with her tasks.

 

 She had a dream, a dream she never shared with anybody. She kept it to herself. She had built in her mind her perfect future. She dreamt about going back home with some money in the pocket. Home, her home, her family, her whole life spent at home. Home was for her more than four walls and a bed, it was her people, the most important part of herself. Home was for her beautiful green hills, valleys, dales and pure streams and lakes. Home was for her life. It was nature in its own. Cows, highland cattle, deers, sheeps…that was home.

 

 There was no much light in that room. The sun had just start shining and illuminatin the world. Besides, the window of that room was not a clean window and so, light could hardly find its way in. Nevertheless, she had to prepare the breakfast for the Lady before she woke up. Actually, there was a little hole in one of the pieces of the window, which allowed the entramce of the light to be a bit easier. That ray directly illuminated her face, letting her see well.

 

By that time in the morning she had already gone to the market so she had already shaped the bread, cooked it in the old woodden oven and put it in different baskets. She had a look to the bread and thought it was the best bread she had ever cooked. It was perfect: not too burnt but with that tempting colour and great smell, which invited her to eat a piece. She began pouring the milk into the cup. Inspite of being tired, exausted, she poured the milk in a very careful way, as if it was the most fragile thing in the world. There was no drop of milk spread in the table; her apron was still clean, which she tried to keep that way because she had no other apron.

 

Although she was tired and bored of doing the same day after day, she tried to it the best she could. However, you could notice her sadness in her face. You could see trhough her eyes her resignation.

 

Millions of ideas would drift in her mind. She spent most of the day thinking, missing, dreaming about her home in the country. She would remember the green valleys with the seeps and the cows, the almost blue lakes surrounded by beautiful pink, yellow and white wild flowers, the singing of the birds and the fly of tens of butterflies around the trees and the grass. She remembered the pure white winters, in which almost everything was frozzen and white. Lakes and rivers were as strong as stones, with no flood of water through them. There were not wild colourful flowers at the shore of the lake, neither green grass in the slope of the hill. Those lively butterflies would have hidden in winter time, and birds would not sing as loud and happy as in summer time. She remembered the freezing cold day and nights, especially whenever she had to do any task outside the house.

 

That morning, once again, she would think about all those things, and would pour the milk just wondering herself how green valleys would be or how blue lakes and streams would be back at home. The work seemed to be easier while dreaming about being there again. Her departure was nearer than ever, though she did not know anything about it. She thought she had to spend at least a couple of years more there to be able to go back home.

 

Nevertheless, the mistress of the house did not need her services more. Tanneke had been a very good maid for many years, but was getting old. The mistress needed young maids, full of vitality. So, that same morning, after pouring the milk, putting the bread in the basket and bringing them to her mistress, she was told the great news. She was going back! Going back home! She thought full of happiness. She went downstairs jumping enthusiastically, where she packed her few things in an old bag. Her dream had made true.

WHO POSED FOR THE ASTRONOMER?

Although Vermeer himself was proposed as the model of this picture there is no certain evidence of who posed for The Astronomer .To paint oneself on profile with both hands extended it could be difficult to overcome. A more convincing candidate was probably The Delft scientist Anthon Van Leeuwanhoek at the age of 54. He was the inventor of the microscope He was born the same year as Vermeer and he lived a few blocks from him. Whether or not his features are similar is debatable.

However specialists have always believed that the same man with straight nose and full lips, posed for both The Astronomer and The Geographer. None of the models who posed for Vermeer’s interiors have been identified even though many scholars thought that most of them were members of his family, especially his wife and his own daughters.

Essential Vermeer. Available on the Web:  http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/astronomer.html

Elizabeth Mansfield

This author, ELizabeth Mansfield, mentioned the painting I chose, “Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window” in her book “Art, history and its institutions”, as we can see in this picture:

This information is given to us by Google. The rights are reserved, but I wanted to show you how this painting is also mentioned not only on the Web but also in different books.

In Google Books. Last time retrieved 17 May 2009, from GoogleBooks .

Wikipedia and “Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window”.

What Wikipedia says about this painting:

Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window is a painting finished in 1657 by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is housed in the Gemäldegalerie of Dresden.

The picture was acquired in 1724 by August III, elector of Saxony, together with a number of other paintings bought in Paris. The seller threw in the picture as a present, to sweeten the deal. It was then attributed to Rembrandt, and the ascription was subsequently weakened to “manner” or “school of”. In 1783, it was engraved as a work by Govaert Flinck. The name “Van der Meer from Delft” occurred for the first time in a catalog dating from 1806, to be changed back to Flinck in 1817. From 1826 to 1860, the appellation was altered to Pieter de Hooch. It is only since 1862 that the correct identification obtains. The only Dutch provenance that could possibly apply is the sale Pieter van der Lip, Amsterdam, 1712, no. 22, “A Woman Reading in a Room, by van der Meer of Delft fl 110″. Unfortunately, the text is not specific enough to distinguish it from the one at the Rijksmuseum, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.

The above underlines the difficulties inherent to the establishment of Vermeer’s catalog. Not a single work can be traced back to the painter’s studio, nor are there any letters or contracts extant. The task of attribution rests squarely upon the shoulders of the individual critic, which explains the multiplicity of divergent opinions. In this painting, a young woman stands in the center of the composition, facing in profile an open window to the left. In the foreground is a table covered with the same Oriental rug encountered in the Woman Asleep. On it is the identical Delft plate with fruit. The window reflects the girl’s features, while to the right the large green curtain forms a deceptive frame. She is precisely silhouetted against a bare wall that reflects the light and envelops her in its luminosity.

We are here confronted with one of the salient aspects of Vermeer’s sensibility and originality. It is the stillness that stands out, the inner absorption, the remoteness from the outer world. She concentrates entirely upon the letter, holding it firmly and tautly, while she absorbs its content with utmost attention.

In the technique, the artist avows again Rembrandtesque derivation. He paints in small fatty dabs to model the forms, and obtains the desired effects by means of impasto highlights opposed to the deeper tonalities – just as the master from Leyden was wont to do. The painting is relatively large, and the smallness of the figure as opposed to its surroundings stresses immateriality and depersonalization. Vermeer considerably changed the composition in the course of execution.

Much has been written about the trompe-l’oeil effect of the curtain. It is a pictorial artifice used by many other Dutch masters and in keeping with an old European tradition. Rembrandt, Gerard Dou, Nicolaes Maes, and many still-life and even landscape painters made use of such curtains as a means of simulating effects that now seem theatrical. The light background can be found in many paintings by Carel Fabritius, the Goldfinch from 1654 at the Mauritshuis in The Hague being the most famous example.[1]

The artist Tom Hunter borrowed the composition for his award-winning photograph of a squatter, Woman Reading a Possession Order.

Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window, In Wikipedia. Last time retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window

Web Gallery of Art: Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window

Signature: Traces of signature (?).

Provenance: Acquired in 1724 by August III, elector of Saxony, together with a number of other paintings bought in Paris. The seller threw in the picture as a present, to sweeten the deal. It was then attributed to Rembrandt, and the ascription was subsequently weakened to “manner” or “school of.” In 1783, it was engraved as a work by Govaert Flinck. The name “Van der Meer from Delft” occurred for the first time in a catalog dating from 1806, to be changed back to Flinck in 1817. From 1826 to 1860, the appellation was altered to Pieter de Hooch. It is only since 1862 that the correct identification obtains. The only Dutch provenance that could possibly apply is the sale Pieter van der Lip, Amsterdam, 1712, no. 22, “A Woman Reading in a Room, by van der Meer of Delft fl 110.” Unfortunately, the text is not specific enough to distinguish it from the one at the Rijksmuseum, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.

The above underlines the difficulties inherent to the establishment of Vermeer’s catalog. Not a single work can be traced back to the painter’s studio, nor are there any letters or contracts extant. The task of attribution rests squarely upon the shoulders of the individual critic, which explains the multiplicity of divergent opinions. In this painting, a young woman stands in the center of the composition, facing in profile an open window to the left. In the foreground is a table covered with the same Oriental rug encountered in the Woman Asleep. On it is the identical Delft plate with fruit. The window reflects the girl’s features, while to the right the large green curtain forms a deceptive frame. She is precisely silhouetted against a bare wall that reflects the light and envelops her in its luminosity.

We are here confronted with one of the salient aspects of Vermeer’s sensibility and originality. It is the stillness that stands out, the inner absorption, the remoteness from the outer world. She concentrates entirely upon the letter, holding it firmly and tautly, while she absorbs its content with utmost attention.

In the technique, the artist avows again Rembrandtesque derivation. He paints in small fatty dabs to model the forms, and obtains the desired effects by means of impasto highlights opposed to the deeper tonalities – just as the master from Leyden was wont to do. The painting is relatively large, and the smallness of the figure as opposed to its surroundings stresses immateriality and depersonalization. Vermeer considerably changed the composition in the course of execution.

Much has been written about the trompe-l’oeil effect of the curtain. It is a pictorial artifice used by many other Dutch masters and in keeping with an old European tradition. Rembrandt, Gerard Dou, Nicolaes Maes, and many still-life and even landscape painters made use of such curtains as a means of simulating effects that now seem theatrical. The light background can be found in many paintings by Carel Fabritius, the Goldfinch from 1654 at the Mauritshuis in The Hague being the most famous example.

Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Kren and Daniel Marx., In Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vermeer/02a/06gread.html

Woman Holding a Balance

“Sus formas visuales hacen referencia al mundo mental, al interior de las personas, a la autoconciencia. Trasciende lo cotidiano, presenta una belleza absoluta. Se dice que es un pintor que detiene el tiempo, el momento, el instante congelado”.

Alejandro Vergara, jefe de Conservación de pintura flamenca y escuelas del Norte

Inspiration
Vermeer is thought to have been inspired in The Goldweigher painted by Pieter de Hooch in 1664. Nevertheless, this influence is far from being coincidental as it indicates the close relation that existed between the two painters. While De Hooch appears to be more concentrated on the geometrical and the anecdotal details, Vermeer adds spiritual and allegorical values to the scene, becoming more complex in meaning.

Woman Holding a Balance (1664)              The Goldweigher (1664)

Composition
As it can be clearly seen, the central point of the painting is occupied by the balance, as the orthogonal lines seem to meet in the balance.

The Woman
The Woman appears to be wearing delicate and elegant clothes that seem to correspond to the Dutch Haute bourgeoisie. She is wearing an open white cup which was not only ornamental but it served to protect the coiffeur when dressing. This white cup can also be seen in other paintings by Vermeer and in other paintings of the time.

The Last Judgment
The woman appears to be framed in the painting that darkly hangs behind her: The Last Judgment. It has been claimed that it corresponds to Jacob de Backer as he also painted The Last Judgment with the particularity of depicting Christ with his arms raised.

Pieter de Backer, The Last Judgment (1580)

The Balance
The woman is attentively waiting until the two scales of the balance come into balance. Nevertheless, there is nothing on the pans that is being weight. Therefore, this suggests that something more important than mere pearls is being weight.

The Mirror
The woman is looking at a mirror that hangs from the wall. Mirrors were quite recurrent in the 17th century arts. For example: Annibale Carrici’s Venus Adorned by the Graces (1590-5) and Diego Velázque’s  La Venus del Espejo (1648-51). They meant self-knowledge and truth

Themes
Since the central focus is on the balance, this painting suggests the importance of sel-temperance and balance to conduct our life. As the woman seems to be framed in the Last Judgment it can also be claimed that this painting is warning us about the ephemeral of human life and that the earthly pleasures are not important. Nevertheless, the woman’s expression of the face inspires calm and tranquility which provides us with comfort and reassurance.

References

• Essential Vermeer [online]. [Accesed 14th May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/
• The National Gallery of Art, Washington. Johannes Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance. [online][Accesed 14th May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web:http://www.nga.gov/feature/vermeer/index.shtm
• Samaniego, F. (2003) El mito de Vermeer conmociona el Prado. El País.com.cultura, 18 February 2003. [online] Accessed 28th May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web:http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/mito/Vermeer/conmociona/Prado/elpepucul/20030218elpepicul_1/Tes

Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid

This masterpiece has been stolen not once, but twice in the last twenty-five years. The owner, a member of Britain’s Parliament, was targeted by the IRA, who broke into his estate in 1974 and took a total of nineteen paintings. It was recovered a week later, having sustained only minor damage. In 1986, the Dublin underworld stole the painting. Only after more than seven years of secret negotiations and international detective work was the painting recovered. Hopefully Vermeer’s The Concert, recently stolen from the Gardner Museum in Boston, will be recovered in a similar manner. Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid exemplifies Vermeer’s essential theme of revealing the universal within the domain of the commonplace. By avoiding anecdote, by not relating actions to specific situations, he attained a sense of timelessness in his work. The representation of universal truths was achieved by eliminating incidental objects and through subtle manipulation of light, color and perspective. The canvas presents a deceptively simple composition. The placid scene with its muted colors suggests no activity or hint of interruption. Powerful verticals and horizontals in the composition, particularly the heavy black frame of the background painting, establish a confining backdrop that contributes to the restrained mood. The composition is activated by the strong contrast between the two figures. The firm stance of the statuesque maid acts as a counterweight to the lively mistress intent on writing her letter. The maid’s gravity is emphasized by her central position in the composition. The left upright of the picture frame anchors her in place while the regular folds of her clothing sustain the effect down to the floor. In contrast, the mistress inclines dynamically on her left forearm. Her compositional placement thrusts her against the compressed space on the right side of the canvas. Strong light outlines the writing arm against the shaded wall, reflecting in angular planes from the blouse that contrast abruptly with the regimented folds of the maid’s costume. The mistress is painted in precise, meticulous strokes as opposed to the broad handling of the brush used to depict the maid. The figures, although distinct individuals, are joined by perspective. Lines from the upper and lower window frames proceed across the folded arms and lighted forehead of the maid, extending to a vanishing point in the left eye of the mistress. The viewer’s eye is lead first to the maid, then on to the mistress as the focal point of the painting. Vermeer shuns direct narrative content, instead furnishing hints and allusions in order to avoid an anecdotal presentation. The crumpled letter on the floor in the right foreground is a clue to the missive the mistress is composing. The red wax seal, rediscovered only recently during a 1974 cleaning, indicates the crumpled letter was received, rather than being a discarded draft of the letter now being composed. Since letters were prized in the 17th century, it must have been thrown aside in anger. This explains the vehement energy being devoted to the composition of the response. Another hint is provided in the large background painting, The Finding of Moses. Contemporary interpretation of this story equated it with God’s ability to conciliate opposing factions. These allusions have led critics to construe Vermeer’s theme as the need to achieve reconciliation, through individual effort and with faith in God’s divine plan. This spiritual reconciliation will lead to the serenity personified in the figure of the maid.

Information written by Mark Harden in:

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/vermeer/lady-writing.html

Vermeer’s work

It is not an easy chore to reconstruct with precision how Vermeer painted. What we now know of contemporary Dutch 17th c. painting methods is based largely on information gleaned from contemporary painting manuals integrated with the results of modern scientific analysis. Period painting manuals were more apt to discuss theoretic issues of the art of painting rather than practical side of every day studio practice. Even though basic methodology was occasionally outlined and recipes were given for specific palettes, the actual craft of making a picture was largely transmitted from masters to aspiring young artists through years of apprenticeship (normally from 4 to 6). Few historical records of studio practice survive. None of them regard Vermeer.

Although Vermeer experimented ceaselessly with specific techniques to render the effects of natural illumination, evidence points to the fact that he worked largely within the boundaries of traditional studio methods of Northern European artists. These methods were very different than those used by artists today. Modern painters usually execute their works a unified whole. They work while standing so they can walk back to envision the totality of the painting. The painting is worked up directly with full color on a white or off-white canvas. Their palettes usually contain every pigment which will likely be present in the finished work. Experimentation and improvisation play vital roles in the working process. Since craft is not is retained an indispensable component of artistic expression there no longer exists uniform instruction in regards.

Instead, 17th c. painters proceeded according to a relatively fixed step-by-step method which they had assimilated in a master’s studio. The work load was divided into distinct phases in order to deal with the principle pictorial components one at a time. The rationale behind this division of labor was based on both technical and economical reasons. It must be remembered that paintings of the 17th c. were generally far more complex in composition and great attention was given to perspective accuracy, naturalistic illumination and fine detail. Once the drawing and lighting scheme had been worked out in the drawing and underpainting stage, artists worked up their compositions in a piecemeal fashion, completing one restricted area at a time.

Almost all representations of artists at work showed them at work seated holding small palettes. The pigments they possessed were very few compared to those available to any modern painter and usually had to be hand ground each day before setting out to work. Moreover, some pigments were not mutually compatible and had to be used separately. To overcome the scarcity of pigments and the inherent limitations of available materials, artists had learned to compensate through the use of complex pictorial techniques such as monochrome underpainting, glazing and by varying paint consistencies and methods of application.

“Research into painter’s terminology has revealed that for the seventeenth-century painter there were three or four main stages: “inventing”, the “dead-coloring”, and the “working-up”, followed (according to Lairesse) by “retouching”.¹

The term “inventing”, corresponds to the modern terms drawing or sketching, “dead-coloring” to underpainting and “working-up” to finishing or the application of color and detail. Each phase, along the preparation of the painting’s support, is discussed in depth on separate pages which can be accessed below. Glazing, a separate technique, is analyzed by itself.

This information is taken from: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/technique/technique_overview.html

The nineteenth Century geometry Grail

It is believed that we may rest assured that Vermeer intended to portray a pregnant girl here. As shown above, the geometry that he used puts the focal point — the “X marks the Spot”– on the swelling stomach of the standing figure,  where it is called attention to it with a small square. Can we be confident of the geometry shown above? Yes.  Look at how the square 4-5-6-7 is anchored at POINT 4, where Vermeer obviously positioned two marker features that have nothing to do with the reality of the scene.  Look at the elongated ellipse that I have drawn at the bottom. LINE 5–7, a side of the square, guided the border of the rug on the floor and clipped the inside corner on the bottom of the chair. This line also went exactly through a corner of the tile (circled). The diagonals of the square and of the hexagram go through several circled features clearly positioned according to the planned geometry. There are other confirming features that I did not circle for reasons of keeping the exhibit uncluttered as possible. They are there for your inspection.

Vermeer has varied the usual position of the pattern for this painting — as he has done a few other times (see, for example, “The Little Street”) — but the pattern is always the same, and it has been identified in sixteen of his works up to here (and the same pattern has been identified in this website in a Goya and in an El Greco).

The received title “Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid” implies that the pregnant girl is a servant. No, she’s too well-dressed — too poised in the presence of the letter writer.  She looks out the window hopefully to the future — or is it worriedly, while Vermeer has hung a painting of a famous baby — little Moses rescued by the Pharaoh’s Daughter — prominently as a backdrop.  A fictional story could be written now about that letter, about the mother-to-be, the father, the coming baby, the letter-writer (the grandmother?) — and the artist who knew the real story.

This information has been taken from:

http://www.vermeersriddlerevealed.com/lady_writing.shtml

Vermeer’s technique

Everything of Vermeer is in the Beit \’Letter\’ set out with a deliberation which was never his before. Form is seen as plain, free of all that has ever seemed particular or accidental. Light carves in flat facets the simplest shapes. In the bare and perfect design two characteristic creatures meet at last, in the centre the standing maid servant, carved as simply as a pillar, exerting her gentle government over the space around her, and before her the bell-like lady, engrossed in herself. They are the poles of Vermeer\’s world, revealed in their complementary character and held together in equilibrium. There is no impact, no drama: the balance is unshakable.

Information taken from:

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/lady_writing_a_letter.html

Girl With a Pitcher of Water

This tranquil scene, notable for the simplicity of the forms which define the composition and the relationship between the different shades of red, blue and ochre, presents an idealized vision of feminine virtue and is an excellent example of Vermeer’s exquisite sensitivity in the observation of reality.

From the beginning of the 1660s when this work was produced, Vermeer’s interiors became simpler, and focused less on the construction of the perspective and more on the representation of light, possibly under the influence of Leiden artists such as Metsu and Van Mieris. In contrast to these artists and to his own earlier work, in the 1660s Vermeer painted scenes which do not appear to depict any specific event or activity nor do they offer dues as to what has just happened or is about to happen.

Both the woman’s clothing and the Persian carpet on the table as well as the other carefully arranged objects in the scene identify her as a member of the upper classes, depicted here in a moment of repose. Vermeer’s mastery lies in the way he makes the formal structure of the work correspond to the serenity of the subject matter, allowing the spectator to discover the harmony and beauty beneath the chance events of everyday existence. To achieve this, the details are extremely important, such as the cadence created by the lines of the woman’s arms and her amiable expression which contribute to the warmth and sensation of restraint which the scene conveys. The artist’s care in the design of the composition led him to make changes (right above) as he worked on it beneath her right elbow are traces of a chair, which Vermeer subsequently decided to move back to the wall behind the table. We also know that the map of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands initially hung closer to the window.

The light is another key element in this work. With great subtlety Vermeer represents the way the light that bathes the scene falls on the metallic objects or the interior frame of the window, while the luminosity of the end wall gives unity to the composition.

It is likely that for a 17th-century viewer, used to looking at religious scenes in which the ewer was an allusion to the Virgin’s purity, the presence of such an object in the present work implies the same connotations of innocence and purity.

The following resources were used for this interactive research:

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/pitcher.html