STUDY OF A YOUNG WOMAN

(Meisjeskopje)

c. 1665–1674
oil on canvas
17 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.   (44.5 x 40 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman,
in memory of Theodore Rousseau Jr

"The Wrightsman ("Study of a Young Woman") and the Mauritshuis ("Girl with a Pearl Earring") paintings are almost identical in size and are close in composition: the figures are similarly posed against dark backgrounds, and each wears a pearl earring and an elegant scarf that falls behind her head. The models may or may have not been Vermeer's daughters, but neither picture was painted as a portrait. The paintings are studies of expression, physical types, and visual qualities such as behavior of light. Whether the two canvases were conceived as pendants, which would have been exceptional for tronies, is quite uncertain but cannot be dismissed out of hand."

Walter Leidtke, Vermeer and the School of Delft, 2001