RIJKSMUSEUM , The Love Letter Vermeer

Like most of Vermeer’s works, The Love Letter is something of a mystery: there are no documents referring to it before it appeared on the antiques market at the end of the 19th century. Although there is no date on the canvas, academics believe it was painted around 1670; on the back wall, to the left of the maid, is the monogram IVM, the painter’s abbreviated signature.

The work is perfectly coherent with Vermeer’s creative and poetic development, featuring details and elements already present in other paintings, such as the brocade curtain and the fur-trimmed yellow gown of the lady, which appears in at least six other works.

Unlike many of his works, however, such as The Milkmaid or The Girl Reading a Letter, the subject is not painted directly facing a window. As you observe the luminous scene, you have the impression you are spying on the women from a dark hallway. This is the only occasion on which Vermeer used this perspective technique, which was quite common among his colleagues who painted indoor scenes.

The whole painting suggests the idea of cleaning and tidying that has been interrupted; this is accentuated by the broom and the slippers abandoned in the foreground....