Details: Vermeer's Painting Methods & Techniques

A GIRL READING A LETTER BY AN OPEN WINDOW
c. 1657-1659
oil on canvas
32 1/4 x 25 3/8 in. (83 x 64.5 cm.)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

impasto

The Italian word "impasto" can be translated as "pasty mixture." In regards to painting technique, the term indicates the application of a thick opaque layer of paint that is immediately evident to the observer's eye. Impasto was often used to represent the more important areas of the painting since it tends to attracts the eye far more than those the surrounding areas of smoother paint layers. The fall of light on the irregularities created by the brush stroke produces a sparkling effect which reinforces the material reality of the object represented.

The optical effect caused by impasto was even greater in Vermeer's times since hand made paint was leaner than paint which is now sold in tubes, the resulting sharper irregularities were more visible. It is also easier for the painter to gather a greater quantities of stiff paint on the brush and readily create the high relief of paint seen often in Rembrandt's work. Some of the impasto effect has been destroyed caused by the pressure of heavy hot irons used for relining the paintings when restored.

An excellent example of impasto can be seen in the figure of girl's head and jacket seen in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. The build-up of thick paint on the girl's forehead accentuates its physical reality and the effect of reflected light. The horizontal movement of the brush on the white collar accompanies its circular movement. The illuminated parts of the lemon yellow bodice were also executed with abundant impasto of using a mixture of white lead and lead-tin yellow, the most brilliant yellow pigment available in seventeenth-century.

Although the young girl in this paintings is very small in respect to her surroundings, (especially when compared to Vermeer's later figure paintings) she nonetheless captures our attention attention. Her visual forcefulness is largely due to Vermeer's exceptional use of impasto as well as color.