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Charlotte Mason Picture Study Aid Johannes Vermeer

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

1663-1664
oil on canvas
46.6 +&39.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

KEY TOPICS:

• In this piece we see a woman standing in pro%le view reading a letter she is holding with bent arms. Her lips are
slightly parted and her hair is pulled back in an elaborate style. She is wearing a blue, satiny, smock-like garment

with a white collar over it and a gray-colored skirt. She is facing the source of light in the piece, in all probability

a window to the le) of the picture plane as is the case with most Vermeer works. In front of her is a table with a
chest, pearls, a bit of ribbon and another sheet of paper (presumably from the same letter) as well as a piece of

fabric draped over it. Two wooden chairs with blue fabric highlighted by metal nails in alternating sizes are

beside the table. On the wall behind her is a map weighted down with a rod and blue %nial. !e piece is
otherwise only %lled with the white plaster wall behind the %gure.

• !e woman may be pregnant, though some art historians have theorized that she was simply dressed in the style
of the time (despite the fact that paintings by other artists from this time period did not include women dressed

in this manner). It is also thought that the model was Vermeer’s wife, Catharina, who was o)en pregnant. If he
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meant to show a pregnant woman, the level of intensity with which she studies the letter may indicate that it is
from the baby’s father who is far from home, symbolized by the map behind her. All of this is conjecture - no one

knows the true story behind this piece.

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