Woman in blue reading a letter

This is the powerpoint I used in my presentation:

Some examples of Vermeer’s influence

During the whole course, we have all realized that there are many art compositions that are based in Vermeer’s paintings.  Here, I have tried to collect some of the most important ones that are based in the painting that I have been working on during these months “Woman in blue reading a letter”.  This would be the two poems and the novel and then I will include some photographs based on another painting of Vermeer that has many similarities with “Woman in blue reading a letter”, which is “Woman reading at the window”. This first poem was created by Bob Chapel and it is clearly based on Vermeer’s masterpiece: Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

Here with his books, his maps, his empty chair- I know never a waking hour without longing, nor slumber without missing his touch. Does he ache for me as I for him? He has winds and tides and hostile aborigines to occupy his mind, but I- an empty chair, and maps, and books, and this swollen belly he knows not of. Books, maps, chair, this letter-passed from ship to ship in southern seas- and the burgeoning fruit of his seed are all I have of him. The letter speaks of hopes for riches beyond measure, and of loneliness, too, but sparingly. Do we not have wealth enough? And loneliness in abundance? Longing for his return, I wait among his books and maps and gaze upon that empty chair, caress his letter, and thrill to the impatient movement within my womb. Will our firstborn shy from him? Or he from this unforeseen stranger in his house? Does he think of me now, as he fills the belly of his ship with spice? Or are his thoughts confined to wind and tide and current- or some dark, exotic maiden?

 

The following poem is called “Woman in blue” and it was composed by Joan Siegel about “Woman in blue reading a letter”.

 

Woman in Blue

She travels toward him

only so far as her hands

have traveled the map

 

so far as her hands

have traveled the contours

of his body.

 

His voice fills the room

as though he were seated

in one of the empty carved chairs.

 

Brightness rises like moonlight

over her blue smock, the belly

that houses the child in its own

 

world, like the mother’s, distant

from the world of the father

as the evening star.

 

The Mother of Joan of Arc

 

She walks one hundred miles

to kneel at the statue of Mary.

 

In Le Puy’s cold cathedral,

she prays for her daughter,

one mother to another.

 

Her prayer

is the mother’s longing–

as it was at the birth

that first ripped her open–

to hold

what her body made

 

not see the flesh

of her flesh

burn

like paper.

 

The following work is a book called “Girl in Hyacinth blue” written by Susan Vreeland. 

“For readers interested in art and history, Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a must read. Author Susan Vreeland traces ownership of a Vermeer painting from the present through each owner in reverse chronology to its seventeenth century Dutch artist. The painting has a complex history, told chapter by chapter in stories of each owner and describes the profound effect the painting had on each one. These stories depict ordinary details with clarity of a Vermeer work of art. Each chapter could stand on its own, like a little gift to the reader. Vreeland is an extremely skilled historical fiction writer, but this book challenges us to think about the function and purpose of art.”

And finally, these are two pictures taken by the famous photographer Tom Hunter and Jonathan Janson. Though them, they try to imitate in a photography Vermeer’s “Woman in blue reading a letter”, each of one in a different way.

“Woman Reading a Repossession Order”

 

“New Vermeers”

 

Sources:

• Vermeer’s Woman in blue reading a letter.  The poem hunter.  Retrieved: April 10, 2011 at 16:30 from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/vermeer-s-woman-in-blue-reading-a-letter/
• Woman in blue.  In quiet light: poems on Vermeer’s women.  Retrieved: April 12, 2011 at 19:30 from http://books.google.es/books?id=w7uXAbqfNkQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=marilyn+chandler+mcentyre+-+in+quiet+light%3A+poems+on+Vermeer%27s+women&hl=es&ei=-7BZTbv2Lca1hAevl9TeDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false and http://vermeer0708.wordpress.com/woman-in-blue-reading-a-letter/
• Vreeland, Susan.  Girl in Hyacinth blue.  Retrieved: April 20, 2011 at 20:45 from http://www.cmlibrary.org/readers_club/reviews/tresults.asp?id=1496
• Hunter, Tom. “Woman Reading a Repossession Order”. Retrieved: April 22, 2011 at 15:30 from http://www.readingwoman.org/en/cols/2005/8.html

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

“Woman in Blue Reading a Letter” was painted by Vermeer in the years between 1662 and 1665.  Like the rest of the Vermeers, it is not very big and it is oil on canvas.  Nowadays, it is part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  Actually, it was the first of the Vermeer paintings that the museum acquired back in 1885.

“Woman in Blue Reading a Letter”, besides, is the only one of this artist’s paintings that is framed entirely against the rear wall of the room.  Unlike others that are framed against the left and back walls of the room, this one only presents a single wall highlighting the sensation of a moment suspended in time.  However, it also enhances the capacity of the painting to accomplish itself as a world- establishing depth, gravity and a sense of time and space regardless to the room’s physical coordinates.  In it, we can observe a woman standing next to a table, dressed in a blue garment, and reading something that looks like a letter.

The interior that Vermeer shows us, moreover, is full of very important element.  The following ones would be the most relevant ones:

First of all, we find the woman.  This young lady has been identified to be the artist’s wife Catharina Bolnes, although there is no objective and official support for that.  Nonetheless, at Vermeer’s time it was usual to employ family members to model for artists as a means of saving money.  Besides, they thought that it was easier to work with relatives since it reduced tensions and the artist could exactly tell them which pose to keep for very long hours.

Probably the most important element of this particular painting is the blue garment that the lady is wearing.  According to the clothes expert Marieke Van Winkel, this garment is called a beddejak and it is a garment with straight sleeves, usually blue or white satin, which was closed in the front with a row of bows.  It was used as bed cloth and due to the expensive material that was made of, only rich people could afford it.  It was not usual for Dutch painters to depict this garment is their paintings. 

So, we can conclude that the lady in the painting has just woken up from bed and she’s reading the letter in the morning light.  In addition, the color blue (more exactly ultramarine blue) of the garment that predominates in the painting, has been associated with sadness and melancholy.  So, probably, the woman is reading a sad letter. 

Regarding to the possible pregnancy of the woman, most experts agree that it was probably not the case.  First of all, because it was not common to portray pregnant women in Dutch art and besides, because the fashion of the time led to that kind of error since it encouraged the bulky silhouette. 

Chairs appear in many Vermeers too.  The chairs in this painting are Spanish chairs.  Its basic model developed in Spain by the 15^th century and it soon spread to all over Europe.  They were considered very valuable and not everybody could afford them.  In this case, they only show high social rank. 

Maps are also very recurrent in Vermeer’s work.  The one that we find in this particular one is the map of Holland and Friesland that was designed by Balthasar Florisz van Berkenrode in 1620.  We can find the same exact map in “Officer and Laughing Girl”.  Nowadays, it we want to see the only surviving sample of this map we must go to the Westfries Museum in Hoorn. 

Moreover, there is a piece of dark clothe that we find in the left low side of the painting.  This gives darkness to the whole painting.  It is composed by a blue tablecloth and a scarf like piece.

 

Finally, we have the letter the woman is reading.  In Dutch art, depictions of women reading letters were usually connected to love.  In this case, the artist may wanted to show that the letter has arrived unexpectedly since the woman ahs been interrupted from her morning toilet to stop and read it.  If we take the already mentioned elements we can also think that probably her husband is a man that travels a lot (the map) so she writes to her often to tell her about her life outside home. 

On the table there is also another page that could either be the first part or the second part of the letter.  At that time, letters were usually not put in envelopes but folded in three and sealed with wax. 

Other paintings of Vermeer that include letters are:

-          Girl reading a letter at an open window

-          Lady writing a letter with her maid

-          A lady writing

-          Lady with her maidservant holding a letter

 

• Woman in blue reading a letter.  Essential Vermeer.  Retrieved: April 10,2011 at 17:40 from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/woman_in_blue_reading_a_letter.html

 

• Woman in blue reading a letter.  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  Retrieved: April 10 at 18:15 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_in_Blue_Reading_a_Letter