Lady with Maidservant Holding Letter Vermeer Cushion

Lady with Maidservant Holding a Letter by Johannes Vermeer, oil on canvas 1667, is a painting of two female figures set against a stark, dark interior background. The maid, subtly modelled in deep chiaroscuro reminiscent of Rembrandt, holds a bright white letter at the centre of the composition. The lady, elegantly dressed in yellow fur coat with pearls and seated before a blue tablecloth, is a cool, classical figure gesturing with hand to chin. This large picture plays a symphonic coloristic contrast of warm yellows, vivid white and cool ultramarine blue tones. Vermeer epitomises the realism, attention to detail, and jewel-like glazed oil colours of the “Little Dutch Masters” of the Baroque era. Johannes (Jan) Vermeer (1632 - 1675) was a Dutch master painter of interior genre scenes whose works were rediscovered in the 19th century. In carefully constructed, geometric compositions drawn in meticulous linear perspective, Vermeer explored the effects of light and colour across human figures, objects and textures in sunlit, domestic rooms, building upon the optical discoveries and 3D perspectival depth of Leonardo and the Renaissance. Both a painter and an art dealer, Vermeer slowly produced a few of his painstakingly executed, richly pigmented compositions per year, living entirely within his home city of Delft, eschewing the fame of his near contemporaries Rubens and Rembrandt that he achieved finally in the modern era.