A Lady Writing
(Schrijvend meisje)
c. 1665-1666
oil on canvas
17 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (45 x 39.9 cm.)
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and
Horace Havemeyer, Jr.
in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer
Vanitas Still-Life
Pieter Claesz
1630
39,5 x 56 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
The still-life painting in the background with a foreshortened viol da gamba by an anonymous artist may have been the one in Vermeer's death inventory described as a "a bass viol with skull." The skull is not visible due, perhaps, to the poor state of conservation of this area of Vermeer's composition. Such still lives were part of a memento mori or Vanitas tradition popular in 17th-century Netherlands. Traditional scholarship interpreted it as an admonition on the young woman's vain and flighty pastime: letter writing. Critic Peter Sutton observed that letter writing being associated with vanity and transitory pleasure was well established in genre painting of the time. However, the self-aware smile of the young letter writer and the profoundly serene atmosphere which pervades this picture seems to be at odds with a moralistic interpretation.
Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning "Be mindful of death" and may be translated as "Remember that you are mortal," "Remember you will die," "Remember that you must die," or "Remember your death". It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but sharing the same purpose, which is to remind people of their own mortality.
This type of lion's-head finial chair which appears in various styles in Vermeer's compositions is found in a great number of genre interior paintings of the time as well. An identical one, with a lozenge motif, was represented in Vermeer's earlier Officer and Laughing Girl (detail left). Very few of these actual chairs have survived till today. Some are still housed in the Prinsenhof Museum in Delft.
The same exquisite slate blue cloth may be found in other paintings of Vermeer such as the Woman Holding a Balance where it is piled up in mountainous folds. More similar in pictorial function and color is the one in the Mistress and Maid. Here, the folds are less dramatic and thus in keeping with the serene atmosphere of the picture. The illuminated part of the cloth which quietly reverberates against the pale lemon-yellow of the ribbon of the string of pearls creates one of the most suggestive chromatic statements in the artist's oeuvre.
The unusual pose in which the young girl turns her gaze towards the viewer instead of downwards towards her letter suggests that the painting was intended as a portrait. Moreover, Vermeer seems to have taken more care to individualize the woman than usual. Her head is set in the middle of the canvas and the composition is arranged to reinforce the face as the psychological center. More than one critic has suggested that the model may have been Vermeer's wife Catharina Bolnes.
Her hairstyle with braided chignon and ribbons tied in bows formed like stars was popular in the third quarter of the 17th century, particularly after the early 1660s. This information helps experts date the painting to the mid-1660s since, like many works by Vermeer, the canvas is signed but not dated.
The small ebony box with studded decorations and writing set appear again in Vermeer's later Mistress and Maid (see left). Similar objects were frequently depicted in other genre paintings of the period. Vermeer expert Lisa Vergara suggests that Vermeer, as Gerard ter Borch and many other genre artists of the time, may have constructed their compositions from a repertoire of costumes and props retained by the artist.
In the Netherlands, writing sets, one of which partially appears behind the box, usually consisted in a plate with two small cup-like vessels with covers: one for the ink and one for the '"blotting sand" or pounce (later in the form of a salt shaker) as well as a quiver for the quills. More refined sorts of sets, like that in Vermeer's Mistress and Maid had one or two drawers to store the writing utensils (quills, pen-knife, signets and sealing wax, if used).
X-ray images of the painting show that the quill pen originally assumed a more upright position and that the contour of the hand which holds the pen was also altered.
The strongest quills come from the primary flight feathers taken from living birds in the spring. The left wing is favored by the right-handed majority of writers because the feathers curve out to the right, away from the hand holding the pen. Goose feathers are most commonly used; scarcer, more expensive swan feathers are considered premium. Depending on availability and strength of the feather, as well as quality/characteristic of the line wanted by the writer, other feathers used for quill-pen making include feathers from the crow, eagle, owl, hawk, and turkey. Calligraphers examine ancient manuscripts to see how many times the scribe sharpened his quill.
The structure of the quill was altered by standing it in hot sand for a period of time. The heat strengthens the barrel of the feather making it more flexible and less brittle. After it has slowly cooled the nib can be cut. Often the barbs of the feather are stripped off partially or completely to allow the writer to grip the shaft more securely. The shaft of the feather acts as an ink reservoir and ink flows to the tip via capillary action.
Fine quality paper was made of wood, hemp and linen while coarser quality was made of rags of old clothing.
Introduced around 700 AD, the quill pen was the dominant writing instrument until 19th century (replaced by the dip pen and later the fountain pen). Quills had to be sharpened frequently, using a special "pen-knife" (see respective paintings by Frans Mieris or Gerrit Dou) and lasted about only a week, then had to be replaced. This is why in paintings showing lawyers or scholars in their studio we sometimes find a number of quill pens lying on the desk. A hand-cut goose quill pen provides a sharp stroke and more flexibility than a steel pen.
This string of pearls with a lemon yellow ribbon is almost identical to that which can be seen lying on the table in Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance. If carefully observed, the outer edge of each pearl has barely been delimited. Only the globular forms of the highlights of thick light-toned pigment tell us exactly where each pearl is located. The lack of a definite contour suggests the pearl's transparency while the rounded highlights inform us of their reflective quality and their spherical form. Throughout his career Vermeer experimented with various techniques to render the particular luminosity of pearls.
Perhaps the ordinary white-washed walls in Vermeer's paintings suggest underlying meaning of Dutch identity which is not apparent to the modern viewer. A 17th-century Dutchman who was returned from a long period of travel once remarked that he was happy to be at home once again within the comforting white-washed walls which, evidently, at the time were uncommon outside the Netherlands.
The stark uneven walls illuminated by daylight of varying intensities, present one of the most challenging pictorial problems in Vermeer's oeuvre. Observing similar renderings by Vermeer's contemporaries, we cannot help but note the various tones of gray pigment used. Instead, in Vermeer's renderings, these same or similar tones, appear inseparable from the play of light as it rakes across the uneven texture of the plastered surface, paint seems to disappear.
In this painting the palette for the wall was simple as it is effective: various mixtures of white lead, umber and charcoal black. This simple formula for painting white objects was widely known but among contemporary genre painters perhaps no artist other than Vermeer was able to use it so effectively.
Perhaps the ordinary white-washed walls which are found in Vermeer's paintings suggest underlying meaning of Dutch identity which is not apparent to the modern viewer. A 17th-century Dutchman who was returned from a long period of travel once remarked that he was happy to be at home once again within the comforting white-washed walls which, evidently, at the time were uncommon outside the Netherlands.
The stark uneven walls illuminated by daylight of varying intensities, present one of the most challenging pictorial problems in Vermeer's oeuvre. Observing similar renderings by Vermeer's contemporaries, we cannot help but note the various tones of gray pigment used. Instead, in Vermeer's renderings, these same or similar tones, appear inseparable from the play of light as it rakes across the uneven texture of the plastered surface, paint seems to disappear. In this painting the palette for the walls was simple as it is effective: various mixtures of white lead, umber and charcoal black. This simple formula for painting white objects was widely known but among contemporary genre painters perhaps no artist more than Vermeer was able to use it so effectively.
A similar elegant fur-trimmed yellow morning jacket appears in five other paintings by Vermeer such as the Mistress and Maid and the late Guitar Player. (see detail left). In the mid-1660s or after they were depicted in an enormous number of Dutch genre interiors, in a wide variety of colors. Such jackets were worn by middle and upper class women. They served as protection against the long gelid Dutch winters while performing household chores. The fur trim was often thought to be ermine. However, Dutch costume expert Marieke de Winkel states that even in the inventories of the wealthiest women this particular fur is never mentioned. She believes that was more likely to have been white squirrel or cat.
In Vermeer's death inventory of 1676 a "yellow satin mantle with white fur trimmings" was found in the "groote zael" (great hall) of the artist's home, which likely belonged to his wife.
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critical excerpt
c. 1665-1666
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)
c. 1665-1667
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)
The ground appears to be a single layer of a warm, light ocher color, containing chalk, (plant?) black, red, and yellow iron oxide (perhaps burnt sienna and yellow ocher), and lead white.
The brushwork of the final paint layers is very thin, except in the lighter tones. Thicker paint has been used only in the form of rounded dots for the highlights. Two preparations of lead-tin yellow were used in the yellow jacket: one coarsely ground, and the other more finely ground and paler, used for the highlights on the shoulder pleats. X-radiography and infrared reflectography indicate that Vermeer made an alteration to the angle of the quill and to some of the fingers holding it.
* Johannes Vermeer (exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis - Washington and The Hague, 1995, edited by Arthur Wheelock)
literature
- (?) Pieter Claesz van Ruijven, Delft (d. 1674); (?) his widow, Maria de Knuijt, Delft (d. 1681);
- (?) their daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven, Delft (d. 1682);
- (?) her widower, Jacob Abrahamsz Dissius (d. 1695);
- Dissius sale, Amsterdam, 16 May 1696, no. 35;
- J. van Buren, The Hague;
- Van Buren sale, The Hague, 7 November 1808, no. 22;
- Cornelis Jan Luchtmans, Rotterdam (1808-16);
- Luchtmans sale, Rotterdam, 20 April 1816, no. 90;
- F. Kamermans, Rotterdam, by 1819;
- Kamermans sale, Rotterdam, 3 October 1825, no. 70 (to Lelie);
- Hendrik Reydon et al. sale, Amsterdam, 5 April 1827, no. 26;
- François-Xavier, comte de Robiano, Brussels (1827-37);
- De Robiano sale, Brussels, 1 May 1837, no. 436 (to J. Héris for the following);
- Ludovic, comte de Robiano, Brussels (1837-d.1887);
- Heirs De Robiano, Brussels (1888-1906);
- [J. & A. Le Roy, Brussels, 1907];
- J. Pierpont Morgan, New York (1907-d.1913, from G.S. Hellman);
- his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., New York (1913-40);
- Sir Harry Oakes, Nassau, Bahamas (1940-43);
- Lady Eunice Oakes, Nassau, Bahamas (1943-46);
- [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1946];
- Horace Havemeyer, New York (1946-56);
- his sons, Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr., New York (1956-62);
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr., in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer (acc. no. 1962.10.1).
exhibitions
Curiosity (detail)
Gerard ter Borch
c. 1660
76 x 62 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Art historian Mariët Westermann points out that in 17th century there was a sudden and unprecedented increase in first person statements in the Dutch Republic. Diaries, journals, soul-searching poems, private letters and not the least, self-portraits were avidly practiced. Reading and writing have in common the capacity of independent thought associated with not only men but for the first time with the women who pose in Vermeer's painting. However, it was not Vermeer who pioneered this way of representing the Dutch woman, but Gerard ter Borch in a series of nuanced interiors (see detail left) where women finally began to receive the same intellectual and psychological regard that was hitherto afforded only to the male figure in the visual arts.
Critics have often noted that women in Vermeer's paintings cannot be considered beauties in the conventional sense of the word. Their sublime beauty derives from the way they are painted and from their context. Lisa Vergara wrote that "the qualities that we attribute to Vermeer's work as a whole apply equally to the women they picture: paintings and personages share dignity, equilibrium and an exceptional of both vivid presence and abstract purity. The figures range from girlish to maternal, yet all are youthful, with high curved foreheads, features that evenly balance the individual and the classical, and simple believable postures. Their costuming - its coloring, shapes and associations - contributes so much to bodily construction and expression that the absence of nudes from Vermeer's oeuvre hardly seems surprising."
A page from
Inleyding tot de Hooge
Schoole der Schilderkonst
Samuel van Hoogstraten
Rotterdam, 1678
To understand the artistic climate in which Vermeer worked, it is useful to consult prevalent art theory. In those times, it went without being questioned that history and the painting of human figures were the highest forms of painting. Samuel van Hoogstraten introduced the doctrine of the hierarchy of subjects to Dutch art theory in his Inleiding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkunst of 1678.
Van Hoogstraten writes that the highest level (the third level, in his scheme) of painting was to show the noblest emotions and desires of rational human beings. In regards to portraiture: "Indeed, those portrait painters who make reasonable likenesses, and imitate eyes and noses and mouths all prettily, I would not wish to place. .. above the first grade, unless they make their faces overflow with the quality of the intellectual soul."
Art historian Mariët Westermann writes that "this mental ability is figured not merely by the theme of writing and reading or by averted gazes. Vermeer established the seriousness of these women about literate activity with great pictorial subtlety, as it were making his own thoughtful compositions stand for the mental activity of his actors."
This girl seems to be wearing a glass "drop earring" which has been varnished to look like an immense pearl. Such earrings were currently fashionable in Holland, as we see in paintings by Van Mieris, Metsu and Ter Borch. Artificial pearls were invented by M. Jacquin in France around this time, thin spheres of glass filled with l'essence d'orient, a preparation made of white wax and silvery scales of a river fish called ablette, or bleak, but cultured pearls were also coming in from Venice.
Pearls are linked with vanity but also with virginity - a wide enough iconographic spectrum. In the 17th century, pearls were an extremely important status symbol. In 1660 English diarist Samuel Pepys paid 4 1/2 pounds for a pearl necklace, and in 1666 he paid 80 pounds for another, which at the time amounted to about 45 and 800 guilders respectively. At about the same time the traveling French art connoisseur Balthasar de Monconys had been shown a single-figured painting by Vermeer which had reputedly been paid 600 guilders and that he considered the price outrageous.
The largest know pearl with a perfect skin or "orient" had a circumference of 4 1/2 inches.
Portrait of Johan van
Beverwijck (1594-1647) in his Study
Jan Olis
c.1640
25.7 x 20.5 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
Although the romantic, intimate mood of this work is impressing, its compositional origin does not derive solely from conventional portraiture. Vermeer expert Walter Liedtke points out that Vermeer, "with his gift for creative synthesis, saw that a newly fashionable type of genre picture, which was evidently introduced by Gerard ter Borch, could be modified expressively by adopting an arrangement familiar fron Dutch and Flemish 'scholar portraits' such as Rubens' Caspar Gevartius (see Related Image no. 11), Van Dyck's Lucas van Uffel (see Related Image no. 10) and Rembrandt's Portrait of a Scholar. The type was well known through prints and had been treated on small scale by several Dutch painters, as seen in Jan Olis's Portrait of Johan van Beverwijck in his Studio (see left), of about 1640."
Although we know not of a single independent still life painted by Vermeer, the unobtrusive still-life groupings which appear here and there throughout his oeuvre are considered among the artist's finest passages. Rivers of ink has flowed to describe the wondrous life of the earthenware and chunks of stale bread in the Milkmaid and followers of the iconographic method have pondered over the possible symbolic meaning of the objects "haphazardly" heaped up on the foreground table of the Art of Painting.
In the present work, Vermeer seems to have relegated his concerns about still life painting do the dark recess of the background wall. The work, which can barely be read today, very likely belonged to his mother-in-law Maria Thins. Most historians would concur that Vermeer would have never included in an arbitrary manner such a large compositional element even though symbolic readings thus far proposed are not unanimous.
It may be of no surprise that Vermeer shunned the still life genre outside of his discreet renditions. According to Samuel van Hoogstraten, who first codified the hierarchical status of subjects in paintings and whose writings Vermeer was no doubt knowledgeable, still life occupied the very bottom tier of subjects. He called still life painters "the foot soldiers in the army of art." Although admirable from a technical point of view, Van Hoogstraten held that still life did not require the artist to exercise his imagination the way history paintings or paintings of figures did.
Notwithstanding theoretical warnings, still life paintings far outstripped in number history paintings which Van Hoogstraten placed at the uppermost tier which "showed the noblest actions and intentions of rational beings."
A Young Woman playing a Harpsichord
to a Young Man (detail)
Jan Steen
c. 1659
42.3 x 33 cm
National Gallery, London
If natural ultramarine blue may be considered the king of Vermeer's palette, lead-tin yellow would justly be called its queen. All of the yellow morning jackets were painted with lead-tin yellow and it was used as an admixture to modify the color of other pigments. Lead-tin yellow is a thick grain paint which brushes well and has great hiding power. It was one of the most common bright pigments (see detail left) being evidently relatively inexpensive to produce.
What is now commonly called lead-tin yellow has had several different names in the past. Italian manuscripts have described a color, giallolino, which is identical to lead-tin yellow. The current name lead-tin yellow is self explanatory. It is a result of heating a mixture of red lead and tin dioxide at about 650 C to 800 C. Warmer hues of yellow appear at the lower temperature, and more lemon-colored hues develop at the higher temperature. This pigment presents a fine uniform particle size with a strong opaque color, which makes it particularly suitable for paintings that demand precise execution. In the Netherlands, it was particularly used by flower painters as the base color for all yellow flowers. Due to its high lead content, lead-tin yellow is very poisonous. Although lead-tin yellow was used in European painting before 1750, it gradually disappeared after that time although there is no satisfactory explanation for this fact.
Two different preparations of lead-tin yellow were used in the yellow jacket of A Lady Writing. Vermeer seems to have first modeled the strong lights with a coarser variety of lead-tin yellow and then refined the modeling and chiaroscuro with a finer one. Melanie Gifford of the National Gallery points out that Vermeer "textured the underpaint by using granular pigments and strongly marked brush handling. These textured passages of underpaint were used in the final image, where they draw the viewer's attention. The lightest passages are literally the most light-catching parts of the painting."
Vermeer mixed lead-tin yellow with various shades of blue to obtain greens of great delicacy. The green trompe l'oeil curtain in the Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window was made by combining lead-tin yellow and azurite. The same combination occurs in the green shutter in The Little Street.
When compared to the startling range of paints available today in any art supply store, the 17th-century painter had to make do with a paltry few. Especially scarce were the so-called strong colors, or bright colors. Even the finest paints of those times cannot compare in brilliancy to the modern cadmium reds or yellows to say nothing of a dazzling array of artificially manufactured greens and violets which were introduced towards the end of the 19th century.
In order to expand the visual effects of their pictures and to enhance color intensity, 17th-century artists like Vermeer had learned to exploit their few paints' natural consistency, coarseness and transparency. A vital role was also played by brushwork.
Painters knew that different paint consistencies evoke different kinds of space. Heavy impasto seems to advance toward the viewer and becomes "more real" while thin, transparent paint tends to recede and evoke atmosphere rather than substance. Thus, the strongly illuminated passage of a painting which generally corresponded to the most important motifs were executed in thick, course impasto. Oppositely, the areas of shadows were done with thin diluted paint in order to evoke the immaterial nature of shadow itself. By actively counterposing areas of impasto with thin paint, the picture's surface becomes more stimulating than if it had been painted with a continuous layer of homogeneous paint.
Such a juxtaposition can be noted in the Lady Writing. The yellow satin sleeves are built up with a coarse but pure lead-tin yellow. Brushwork, which defines the patterns of tuck and fold of the fabric is clearly visible. The combined effect of the impasto paint and irregularities of the brushwork creates a slight sparkling effect to which the eye is naturally drawn augmenting the material presence of the garment. Instead, the deep gray of the background wall is painted with unmodulated paint so thinly that it leaves the brown underground peer through here and there.
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766)
Concerto Armonico no. 2, Andante [920 KB]
http://www.amazon.com/Wassenaer-Concerti-Unico-Wilhelm-van/dp/B00006RHPO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1255264489&sr=1-2
Gerard ter Borch
c. 1668-1669
Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London
Gabriel Metsu
1662-1665
53 x 40 cm
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Rembrandt van Rijn
1631
132 x 109 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Gerard ter Borch
Private collection
Gerard ter Borch
Private collection
Gerard ter Borch
c. 1655
38 x 29 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
Eglon van der Neer
38.1 x 27.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Caspar Netscher c. 1665
73.5 x 50.5 cm.
Private collection
Jan Olis
c.1640
25.7 x 20.5 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
Anthony van Dyck
c. 1621-1627
124.5 x 100.6 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pieter Paul Rubens
1628
Koninklijk Museum Voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
Jacob Ochtervelt
c. 1670
46,8 x 38,4 cm
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe