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PUNTART

The stories, symbols and history behind great art

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Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, c. 1657–1659. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Brieflezend meisje bij het venster

Artist
Johannes Vermeer
Date
c. 1657–1659
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
83 × 64.5 cm
Location
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, DresdenInventory no. Gal.-Nr. 1336

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An early interior by Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1657–1659: a young woman reads a letter at an open window. Since the restoration completed in 2021, a painting of Cupid is again visible on the wall behind her.

Historical context

Painted around 1657–1659, the work has been in Dresden since 1742,1 when it was acquired as a Rembrandt.2

Interpretation

Tests showed the Cupid was overpainted decades after it was finished, long after Vermeer's death, so the bare wall was not his choice.1

Symbols and meanings

CupidEstablished fact
A picture within the picture; a similar Cupid appears in A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal.Hidden Cupid resurfaces in one of Vermeer's best-known works after two and a half centuries
The overpaintEstablished fact
Added decades later by another hand and removed with a scalpel during the restoration.First look at 'new' Vermeer painting as whole hidden Cupid is finally revealed

Sources

  1. 1Hidden Cupid resurfaces in one of Vermeer's best-known works after two and a half centuries. The Art Newspaper, 2019
  2. 2Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Wikipedia

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    The Cupid Hidden in Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter

    For more than 250 years, Vermeer's letter reader stood before a bare wall. A restoration in Dresden showed that the wall once held a painting of Cupid, and that Vermeer was not the one who covered it.

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