The Love Letter
(De liefdesbrief)
c. 1667-1670
oil on canvas
17 3/8 x 15 1/8 in. (44 x 38.5.cm)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Music Lesson
Jacob Ochtervelt
1671
Art Institute of Chicago
If we can trust genre interior painting of the 17th century, Dutch houses were full of maps. The great majority of them were meant for decorative rather than didactic or practical purposes. This one, which can be barely made out, must have been particularly pleasing to Vermeer since he used it in three other works. All of its features can be clearly observed in the early Officer and Laughing Girl.
It shows Holland and West Friesland even though it may not be readily understood since it is oriented west at the top. During this period, north at the top was not standard practice as it is today. It was designed by Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode in 1620. The printing rights and copper plates were later acquired by Willem Jansz. Blaeu who headed a florid publishing house specialized in maps. Although this map contains no date, it must have been printed between 1621, when Bleau received plates and privilege to publish the map, and 1629, when the privilege expired.
Only one example exists (West Fries Museum in Hoorn) and confirms the precision of Vermeer's rendering. All the maps in Vermeer's painting were printed in Amsterdam which was then one of the principle centers of map-making in the world.

The floral-patterned repoussoir(in French repoussoir means push back) tapestry, which doubles for a curtain, is yet another element which helps to divide the pictured scene from the observer's space and enhance the illusion of depth. It stimulates the viewer's participation who is subliminally induced to believe it was drawn-back to reveal some unexpected event which he will shortly witness.
This tapestry may have been a personal possession of Vermeer since it appears in various paintings. It most likely would have been considered a luxury item. In the Lacemaker, it lies on the tabletop beneath the still-life and in the Allegory of Faith it lies on the raised platform. However, it produces the most dramatic effect in the Art of Painting. In the Love Letter, the sinuous patterns of flowers and leaves mitigate the highly geometric scheme of the composition.
Landscape with Family Group
Adriaen van de Velde
1667
148 x 178 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Far from being a decorative filler, art-historical research has demonstrated that the many so-called "pictures-within-pictures" in Vermeer's paintings relate iconographically to the scenes which unfold before them. Their meanings are drawn from 17th-century love songs (airs), love poems and courtesy literature. This painting represents a lone wanderer (rendered with a few adept dabs of paint) in an idyllic landscape in the style of Adriaen van de Velde (see left).
The wanderer may reflect the separation and desire for reunion between the elegant young mistress and a distant lover. In Petrarchan verse, which had a profound influence on Dutch poetry and concept of romantic love, nature was depicted as a sympathetic witness of the lover's pains during his absence from the beloved.
Illustration from:
Minnebeelden: toe-ghepast
de lievende ionckheyt
Jan Harmensz. Krul
Amsterdam
1632
The anonymous seascape may represent an absent loved-one who is presumably the author of the missive which has just been plced in the hand of the mistress. Many Dutch women of the time must have experienced the great distances of the globe through their loved-ones.
A significant percentage of able-bodied Dutch men earned their living from sea trade and Dutch painters and poets drew heavily from seafaring experience for their imagery. On the other hand, the ship in the picture may be associated with the emblematic motif of the suitor as a ship on the sea of love searching the safe harbor of his lady's arms. The motto inscribed above Jan Krul's contemporary emblem (see left) reads: "Even Though You Are Far Away, You Are Never Out of My Heart." In any case, the calm sea and blue sky of the ebony-framed seascape in Vermeer's Love Letter may be a good omen in love providing a hint that the anxieties of the mistress are unfounded.
A Woman Drinking with Two Men (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
c. 1658
73,7 x 64,6
National Gallery, London
The kind of tiled hearth in Vermeer's painting can be seen in great number and variety of Dutch interior paintings. It should be remembered that the Dutch winters were long and cold and thus the hearth had a fundamental practical importance in Dutch homes.
The typical structure of this kind of hearth may be observed more advantageously in a detail of a painting by Pieter de Hooch (see detail left) who worked in Delft during the years that Vermeer was active. The presence of the richly decorated hearth in Vermeer's painting indicates that the scene takes place in the grote zaal, the most important room of the household.
A Party of Four Figures at a Table (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
1663-1665
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Together with the decorative mantelpiece, the two elegantly framed landscapes and the costly marbled floors, the presence of ells of gold-tooled leather indicate that the scene takes place in the grote zaal (great hall). This kind of wall covering must have been common in the homes of the rich who covered entire rooms (see detail left). The effect must have been so dazzling and was frequently depicted by interior painters of the time (see left). This kind of covering had a practical end as it served to protect the interior environment from the humidity of the gelid Dutch winters.
The grote zaal was habitually used by adults or when important visitors were present. The ells most likely correspond to the same seven ells described in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. They can be seen behind the still-life with a golden crucifix in Vermeer's Allegory of Faith.
A Party of Four Figures at a Table (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
1663-1665
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Together with the decorative mantelpiece, the two elegantly framed landscapes and the costly marbled floors, the presence of seven ells of gold-tooled leather indicate that the scene takes place in the grote zaal (great hall). This kind of wall covering must have been common in the homes of the rich who covered entire rooms (see detail left). The effect must have been so dazzling and was frequently depicted by interior painters of the time (see left). This kind of covering had a practical end as it served to protect the interior environment from the humidity of the gelid Dutch winters.
The grote zaal was habitually used by adults or when important visitors were present. The ells most likely correspond to the same seven ells described in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. They can be seen behind the still-life with a golden crucifix in Vermeer's Allegory of Faith.
Dutch painting specialists have not been able to provide a satisfactory iconographical meaning for the broom and discarded morning slippers left across the entrance. However, it is highly probable that they were readily understood by Vermeer's contemporaries. Perhaps they indicate the state of emotional abandon of the mistress who neglects her daily chores. According to 17th-century commentators, the Dutch were obsessed with cleanliness, which no doubt lead to frequent representations of brooms. In literary and pictorial tradition the broom on occasion could be used as symbol of sex. They also were held to have magical properties such as ensuring that a house was free from evils spirits. Samuel van Hoogstraten used both broom and slippers in an analogous see-through room painting which Vermeer may have used as a model for his own work. In any case, the broom, which has been painted darker than any other dark area of the painting, bars the viewer from advancing thereby reinforcing the privacy of the scene as it unfolds.

According to music expert Albert P. de Mirimonde, the crumpled piece of sheet music (tablature) does not make musical sense. Whether Vermeer's inaccuracy was accidental or deliberate cannot be known.
Tablature was a common Medieval and Renaissance form of musical notation that could be written for any fretted string instrument. Tablature tells the reader which frets to press and which strings to play.
Music songbooks flourished immensely in the Dutch Republic. French and Italian models were popular since Dutch music was considered uninventive and undistinguished. The cittern, which the mistress holds, achieved its greatest importance in the 16th and 17th centuries and was held in high esteem both as an accompanying instrument for the singing voice or for dance music. Many compositions were written expressively for it, often intricate and difficult to play. The solo repertoire, however, required a substantial technical virtuosity.
Whatever its proper use may have been, this piece of fabric appears in at least three other pictures by the artist. Its design and fold seems comparable to light yellow and blue-bordered one seen draping from the still-life in The Art of Painting. It is difficult to make a precise idea of its texture. If we are to judge by its rendering in the Art of Painting, it appears to be made of some kind of reflective cloth, such as silk or caffa which was used for interior decoration. Vermeer's father had been trained to work in caffa. It is very likely that it again appears in the Allegory of Faith and may even be the pendant of the makeshift turban worn by the illustrious Girl with a Pearl Earring.

The clothes hamper and dark blue sewing pillow that lie unattended may have been to indicate the anxieties of love which have kept the mistress from her domestic responsibilities. A similar hamper once appeared behind the standing maid in Vermeer's early Milkmaid. It was later painted out by the artist himself for unknown reasons.
From a technical point of view, the hamper is an amazing piece of abstraction whereby the complex optical world is reduced to a few essential forms. Its daring shorthand has induced some specialists to believe that Vermeer used the camera obscura as an optical aid for his painting.
A similar sewing pillow is featured in the still life of the Lacemaker. Lacemaking and sewing were associated with one of the principle social norms of 17th-century Netherlands: domestic virtue.
We do not know the real identity of the young woman who posed for the seated mistress. In fact, not a single sitter in Vermeer's oeuvre has ever been identified even though specialists tend to believe that Vermeer used his own family members as did other genre painters of the time. The money saved by avoiding to pay professional models is only too evident.
The hidden power of this work is set off exchange of glances between the maid and mistress. While the mistress clearly belongs to a socially elevated class, the maid's wry smile, drab work-dress and standing position overturn the mistress' psychological superiority.
The mistress' yellow satin morning jacket must be the one listed in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. This jacket or manteltge as it was called in Delft, protected women against the cold during the long Dutch winters as they performed household chores. Its loose fit permitted freedom of movement. Dutch costume expert Marieke de Winkel believes that fur trim was very likely not ermine as it is usually described, but cat or squirrel. The fine manteltge portrayed in the Love Letter belonged no doubt, to Catharina Bolnes, Vermeer's beloved wife who gave the artist 11 children during their 20 year marriage.

This kind of elegant gown was most likely made of caffa, a luxurious material made for upholstery and fine clothing. It is known that Vermeer's father worked in caffa (a silk-like material produced for tapestry and dress) and thus, some specialists have supposed that the artist's penchant for depicting this kind of material may be linked to his parental affection.
The gown's simple yet elegant block-like shape is a masterpiece of pictorial shorthand which describes both the material's texture and the position of the mistress' legs with two tones of light yellow and one deep ochre tone. Its golden tone differs subtly from the lemon tone of the fur-lined morning jacket. It may have been glazed with a thin transparent layer of pigment called woude (weld), a natural dyestuff obtained from the cultivated plant Dyer's Rocket. Weld was one of the most widely used dyes for cloth and was used by painters as well even though it had a tendency to fade easily.
The Duet (detail)
Cornelis Saftleven
1635
34 x 53 cm
Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna
As Vermeer expert Albert Blankert pointed out, music making is a sign of love in many emblem books. "Sometimes the lover is compared with a musical instrument, whose strings or keys are touched by the beloved."
The cittern held by the mistress was one of the most popular musical instruments of the 16th and 17th century and it was also the one most frequently depicted by Vermeer and his colleagues (see detail left). Although its form may recall the more familiar lute, it has a very different history and above all, it produces a very different sound making it adapted for different music.
The cittern's strings are made of metal while the lute's are made of natural animal gut. In particular, the brass strings of the cittern sound much louder, also because they are played with a plectrum. Its sprightly and cheerful sound is comparable to the modern banjo although a good cittern sounds a bit like the virginals. Instead, the lute is plucked by the bare fingers and produces a softer, nostalgic tone. Vermeer may have chosen to depict this particular instrument according to the painting's iconographic program. Perhaps it held a particular meaning which was more evident to his viewers, although it can certainly not be ruled out that its peculiar sound and curious almond-like form would have appealed to Vermeer's aesthetic sensibilities.
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini
and his Wife (detail)
Jan van Eyck
1434
82 x 60 cm
National Gallery, London
Slippers are frequently represented in Dutch interior paintings of the time even though they had been depicted many years before by Flemish painters, Jan van Eyck's famous Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife being one of the most illustrious examples (see detail left).
Like many other objects which populate Northern paintings, experts have come to agree that each may have had different and even contrasting meanings depending on the context in which they are portrayed. For example, a mirror, one of the most ubiquitous symbols in the history of Western painting, could symbolize vanity or self-knowledge, while pearls, one of the most characteristic props in Vermeer's work, are linked with vanity but also with virginity
a wide enough iconographic spectrum. In any case, it should be noted that slippers were usually worn in the bedroom. For some reason, they are instead found in the grote zaal (great hall) used for adults and receiving important visitors.

The depiction of the two female figures is a masterpiece of painting and theatre. One can almost feel a flicker of electricity that flows through their glances and the momentary reversal of the hierarchical position of their social roles. For a brief moment, it is the maid who seem to be in control and the mistress who cautiously pleas for help.
The figure of the maid, who has presumably just consigned a love letter, contrasts with that of the nervous, uncertain mistress. She stands tall and erect, her left arm akimbo, a pose usually reserved for men in Dutch art. Her billowing white cap, which is echoed in the clouds of the background painting, makes her seem even taller. Her positive demeanor and cocky smile tells us, according to art historian Lisa Vergara, that the "lady's concern will prove unfounded. The calm sea represented in the large painting behind the two women support this conclusion. Since the missive is sealed however, we wonder how the maid could have discerned its contents." Dutch plays and popular literature often dealt with the household maid who overstepped their station.
Other than by body language, Vermeer emphasized emotional exchange by bonding the two figures with the lengthy, sharp contour that unites them on the surface of the canvas.

Willemijn Fock, a historian of the decorative arts, has demonstrated effectively that floors paved with marble tiles were extremely rare in the Dutch 17th-century houses. In the homes of the very wealthy where floors of this type were sometimes found, they were usually confined to smaller spaces such as voorhuis, corridors and upper story sleeping or storage rooms. Vermeer most likely worked from a mathematical grid based on real more common tiles and adapted their patterns and colors to the necessities of each composition.
In the Love Letter, the row of five successive white tiles guides the viewer's attention away form the foreground towards the central dialogue of the mistress and maid. Vermeer has given the black tiles a distinctive bluish cast which subtly activates the intense colors of the figure. The veins of the white tiles are rendered with calligraphic brushstrokes free from constraints of optical fidelity opposite from the careful description manner deployed in the earlier Music Lesson.
critical excerpt

c. 1669-1670
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)
c. 1669-1670
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)
The existing canvas may not be original. X-radiography shows a closed plain-weave with a thread count of 16.25 x 14 per cm ².
The apparently double ground comprises a red layer followed by a gray layer containing chalk, umber, and a little lead white. Between the two is a thin, unpigmented layer. The red layer may be related to a transfer process.
The paint surface is smooth, with few individual brushstrokes discernible. The dark, gray tiles were painted first, and then the white tiles were painted before the gray tiles were dry. The chair and part of the scarf draped over it the right foreground were underpainted with red lake. The maid's blue apron was painted with a blue-gray underpaint followed by a mixture of blue and white with a final blue glaze. The blue appears to be ultramarine, a lighter patch of which on the mistress' lap can be seen to extend under the bottom of the lute. The vanishing point of the composition is visible on the x-radiograph. The painting was cut off the stretcher during its theft in 1971. The resulting paint loss was mainly restricted to a band approximately 0.5 centimeter wide on either side of the cuts, although there are more serious losses in the top right corner and the center-right area. There is some surface abrasion.
* 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 van Lennep, Amsterdam (c.1810?-d.1850);
- his daughter, Margaretha Catharina van Lennep, Amsterdam (1850-d.1891);
- married Jan Messchert van Vollenhoven [d.1881] in 1850);
- J.F. van Lennep, Amsterdam (1892);
- Messchert van Vollenhoven/Van Engelenberg sale, Amsterdam, 29 March 1892, no. 14 (to J. Ankersmit of the Vereniging Rembrandt);
- Vereniging Rembrandt, Amsterdam (1892-93);
- purchased in January 1893 by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. A 1595).
exhibitions


Woman Reading a Letter
Gabriel Metsu
1662-65
53 x 40 cm
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
The theme of a maid and mistress was enormously popular among Dutch genre painters. Vermeer had already explored its potential in one of his large-scale works, Mistress and Maid. In both works Vermeer masterfully depicts the moment in which a maid delivers a letter, presumably a love letter, to her mistress. In the present picture, the wry smile on maid's face and the questioning expression of the mistress masterfully reveals the uncertainty of love within the apparent security of well-appointed interior. To further underscore the uncertainty of the moment, Vermeer depicted a laundry basket, morning slippers, a broom and even a crumpled piece of sheet music strewn about in apparent disorder.
Vermeer must have drawn inspiration from Gabriel Metsu's work of similar theme and composition done years earlier (see left).
In Dutch art, maids were represented in their subservient role in the bourgeois household. In emblematic and popular literature of the day, they are cast as a threat to the security of the home, the center of Dutch life. However, in Northern Europe maids were represented in a more neutral role, caring for children or themselves supervised by the mistress of the house. Occasionally, a few painters, including Vermeer himself ( The Milkmaid) portrayed them in a dignified and sympathetic light.
With the unparalleled surge in literacy in the Netherlands, common women, for the first time, committed their feelings to paper. First person statements in the Dutch Republic, including letter writing, private diaries, journals, soul searching poems and self-portraits, proliferated far beyond their Renaissance role in aristocratic culture.
Letter writing manuals written in vernacular Dutch flourished. They contained instructions not only for fine calligraphy but in regards to style and elements of composition as well. It was only logical that this novel and widespread activity would become a favorite subject for painters. Letters richly evoke the thoughts, emotions and locations of the depicted figures and equally of the absent ones precisely because the viewer will never know the contents of the letter. However, the love letter was far from being innocuous as it may appear at first glance. Contemporary literature declared the litterae amatoriae a proper subject of legal inquiry. A love letter might imply a promise of marriage or adultery if one were already married.
The title page of:
Proteus Ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert
In Sinne-Beelden
Jacob Cats
1627
The symbolic content of Vermeer's paintings has proved particularly difficult to interpret. The complicated Love Letter, with its clutter of objects, has given birth to variety of supposed meanings. But some Dutch art specialists now believe that the difficulty in explaining Vermeer's paintings may be due to the fact that the artist deliberately left their meanings open.
The concepts of hidden meaning, concealment, deception ( schijn sonder sijn, seeming without being) and iconographic flexibility were characteristic features of 17th-century culture. Jacob Cats, the author of numerous popular emblem books (see left), wrote that concealment is often more effective than saying things openly. Moreover, this "pleasing obscurity" gives the reader "a rare inner satisfaction" when he later [discovers] "the true aim and purpose." These concepts were also present in the preambles of Dutch novels and plays and it seems highly likely that painters were sensitive to them as well.

It is largely accepted that Vermeer used a camera obscura (a kind of precursor to the modern photographic camera) as an aid to his painting. The camera obscura was well known in both scientific and artistic circles and was recommended to painters for both studying nature as well as tracing its image to short cut problems of drawing and perspective. Although the camera obscura leaves no physical trace, many of the peculiar characteristics of the image it produces may be found in the Love Letter and in many other paintings by Vermeer, especially the so-called pointillés. Pointillés, or spherical disks of light are produced by the imperfect lens of the 17th century in situations of extreme light contrast. They can clearly be observed on the clothes hamper and on the gilded leather wall covering (see detail left) behind the maid and mistress.
Couple with Parrot
Pieter de Hooch
1668
73 x 62 cm
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
Throughout his career Vermeer devised various means to establish and enhance private spaces for his figures. In this picture, the viewer stands in another room, distant from the unfolding scene of the maid and mistress who remain unaware of his presence. This pictorial convention, called doorkijkje, was practiced by other Dutch genre painters as well. On the basis of costume, scholars believe that Peter de Hooch's Couple with a Parrot (see left), which is strikingly similar to Vermeer composition, pre-dated Vermeer's Love Letter by a few years. The fact that Vermeer drew heavily from models invented by lesser artists should not surprise. It was a matter of course that painters freely traded with each other technical, stylistic and iconographical inventions in order to speed production and cater to constantly changing tastes of the art market.
It is almost certain that De Hooch's (or Vermeer's) composition was based on Samuel van Hoogstraten's Interior with Slippers painted at least 10 years earlier. Vermeer had painted at least one other doorkijkje (which has not survived) described in the Dissius auction of 21 Vermeer paintings in Amsterdam in 1696: "a gentleman washing his hands through a see-through room with sculpture."
Cupid with a Messanger
emblem from Otto Vaenius,
Amorum Emblemata...
Antwerp, 1608
Faculty of Arts, Utrecht University Library
Although an upsurge letter writing had given birth to a thriving postal service in the 17th century Netherlands, it was far from organized. Messengers multiplied but complaints often arose about these "hirelings" who tended to inflate postage rates. They were also noted for their impertinent behavior. Some great men and well-to-do private citizens retained their own trusted private couriers in order to maintain communication secret. Even though in the Netherlands the literacy rate was unusually high, females were less literate since they were usually given less formal education and were not permitted to attend Latin school.
Servant girls could rarely sign their name and probably could not read, suggesting that they provided an exceptionally discreet corps of letter delivery. The Hague poet Jacob Westerbaen, enlarging on Ovid's Art of Love, recommended women to "show your mind with letters," to learn to hold the quill in the right hand and the lyre in the left, and to entrust letters with suitable maids.
The Voice of the Ghost [1.62 MB]
Anthony Holborne
performed by Lee Santana

The Cittern
In Italian Renaissance humanist culture the cittern was regarded as a classical revival of the ancient Greek kithara even though it seems to have its direct development from the medieval citole. It presents some similarities with the fiddle, as its plucked form.
The structure and tuning of the cittern varied almost from country to country. While in England, France and northern Europe the small four-course-instrument was commonly used, Italian musicians preferred the larger six-course instrument.
The cittern achieved the height of its diffusion in the 16th and 17th centuries. Above all in Italy and in England it was held in high esteem both as an accompanying instrument for the singing voice or for dance music. Many compositions written expressively for it, often intricate and demanding to play.
The great number of paintings depicting a cittern proves the instrument's great popularity in the 17th-century Netherlands. With its flat back it was more robust in structure than the fragile lute, therefore cheaper and more portable. The cittern's easy playability made it the preferred instrument especially of the middle and upper classes for song accompaniment and dance music.
The cittern has a shallow round or pear-shaped body tapering from the bottom towards the neck. The body is carved from one piece of wood and only the soundboard and fingerboard were added separately. The use of metal strings plucked with a quill or plectrum gives the instrument its sprightly and cheerful sound, one of the reason for the cittern's great popularity.
A Woman Handing a Coin to
a Serving Woman with a Child
Pieter de Hooch
c. 1668-1672
73 x 66 cm
Private collection
Vermeer needn't look far for inspiration for the present work. The interplay between the mistress and maid was a recurrent theme in Dutch interior painting, especially in Southern Holland. A Woman Handing a Coin to a Serving Woman with a Child by Pieter de Hooch makes a revealing comparison. While scholars surmise that the two painters assiduously interacted to each others work, the exact nature of their give-and-take relationship is hard to define.
In both paintings, we view a seated mistress who temporarily suspends her activity and interacts with a standing maid from a comfortable distance. To the left is an elaborate fireplace, to the right a clothes basket and behind framed objects on the wall. As would be expected, the mistresses flaunt their most elegant household clothing and hairstyles while the maids wear standard working garments. De Hooch's picture allows us to imagine the nearby opened window which is concealed in Vermeer's version. Unfortunately neither of the works bears a date so we cannot know who drew inspiration from whom.
De Hooch's narrative couldn't be simpler. The mistress hands a coin to the maid, who carries a shiny marketing pail looped over her arm, so that she can make her purchases. The primped-up daughter of the mistress pulls at the maid's skirt, anxious to tag along to the market place. The scene exudes serenity and good intensions. On the other hand, as befits his more complex temperament, Vermeer investigates the psychological undercurrents at work between the two women who are distinguished by their social class but linked by their sex. The tough-looking servant hovers over her mistress, her hand confidently on her hip. A wry smile informs us that she may be in the know regarding the contents of the letter she has just handed over to her maid. Their hierarchical positions appear to be temporarily subverted.
The role of the maid in Dutch society is ambivalent. In some instances they were considered a sort necessary evil, especially in popular literature. Theatrical satires and household manuals warn of their natural laziness and propensity to all sorts of mischief, form eavesdropping to drunkenness. One of their bad habits was to their tendency to dress as well as their mistress. Countless stories involve enterprising maids who cunningly take advantage of the sexual advances of the mistress' foolish husband.
However, according to eye-witnesses, Dutch maids were generally treated favorably, occasionally, too much so. Written accounts describe close relationships between the mistress and maid, to the point that the maid could be mistaken for a family member. A visiting Frenchman told of a wife who scolded her husband for asking the maid to fetch something, ordering him to fetch it for himself.
In painting, Dutch maids were treated negatively and positively. Nicolas Maes shows them asleep neglecting her duties or eavesdropping on an amorous meeting in her mistress' household. On the other hand, De Hooch could show a maid working together with her mistress in cheerful serenity with her mistress. In visual terms De Hooch's pictures portray the sort of collaboration auspicated in handbooks on housekeeping. The good mistress was encouraged to keep a watchful eye on their servant but at the same time able to work alongside them as well in harmony.



