Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

Letter reader in blue is a arisen 1662-1664 oil painting by Jan Vermeer. The 46.5 centimeters high and 39 centimeters wide image shows a woman reading a letter. It is located in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Image description

The image reader letter in blue shows a woman standing, which is absorbed in reading a letter. She is shown in profile, wearing a blue short-sleeved jacket and wearing a topknot. Probably the woman is pregnant, why was speculated in the earlier literature on Vermeer whether it is his wife. However, the meaning of the image resulting from the contrast between the respectability of marriage and the letter reading, suggesting a secret love.

In the background hangs a large wall map of the Netherlands, which is also seen on Vermeer's painting The Soldier and the laughing girl. At the left edge of the picture in the background on the wall and the front right in the corner of the picture there are two identical chairs. The woman stands behind a table on which a pearl necklace, a jewelry box and a scarf are that have been interpreted as a symbol of vanitas.

Aftereffect

The letter reader in blue came in 1885 as a legacy in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. There it saw, among other Vincent van Gogh, who then wrote about Vermeer to Émile Bernard: " Do you know a painter named Vermeer? He has painted the graceful and beautiful figure of a pregnant Dutch woman. The color scale is from blue, lemon yellow, pearl gray and white. It is true that in the few pictures we have of him, you can find all the colors of the palette; but it is after all characteristic of him that he combines lemon yellow, a dull blue and a light gray, as Velasquez Black, White, Grey and Pink binds to a harmony. "