GIRL WITH A RED HAT
(Meisje met de rode hoed )
c. 1665-1666
oil on panel
9 1/8 x 7 1/8 in. (23.2 x 18.1 cm.)
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
"For a painter who excelled in the observation of light, nothing was a more suitable vehicle than the present picture: a bust length figure of a woman in wrap of luxurious material, an outrageous hat, moist lips set between glistening pearls, and daylight streaming in from a nearby window on the right. That the model has a distinctive, somewhat androgynous features and conveys a certain attitude (which would have been needed to carry-off such a costume) adds considerably to the work's 'curiosity,' a term routinely employed by connoisseurs of the period to express admiration."
Walter Liedtke, Vermeer and the Delft School, 2001
