Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (Dutch: Brieflezend meisje bij het venster), also known as Lady reading at an open window, is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Completed in approximately 1657–1659, the painting is on display at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, which has held it since 1742. For many years, the attribution of the painting—which features a young Dutch woman reading a letter before an open window—was lost, with first Rembrandt and then Pieter de Hooch being credited for the work before it was properly identified in 1880. After World War II, the painting was briefly in possession of the Soviet Union. In 2017, tests revealed that the painting had been altered after the painter's death.
The painting was laboriously restored to its original composition between 2018 and 2021 using scalpel and microscope. It now shows Cupid in a “painting within a painting” on the wall, and since the restoration, hangs at the museum in Dresden as Vermeer painted it.
Composition
The painting as seen for nearly 300 years depicts a young Dutch blonde girl standing at an open window, in profile, reading a letter. A red drapery hangs over the top of the window glass, which has opened inward and which, in its lower right quadrant, reflects her. A tasseled ochre drapery in the foreground right, partially closed, masks a quarter of the room in which she stands. The color of the drape reflects the green of the woman's gown and the shades of the fruit tilted in a bowl on the red-draped table. On the table beside the bowl, a peach is cut in half, revealing its pit.
X-ray examination of the painting in the 21st century revealed an image on the wall behind the girl. Further work by conservator Christoph Schölzel in 2017 revealed that varnish on that part of the painting differed from the rest of the painting, and was clearly applied after Vermeer died. In 2019, it was decided by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (State Arts Collection in Dresden) to restore the painting to its original composition by Vermeer. The painting of Cupid on the wall behind the girl resembles a painting from Vermeer’s own collection of art, a painting by Cesar van Everdingen.
The restoration provides an opportunity to reconsider the painting. The painting of Cupid on the wall may suggest that the girl is reading a love letter. Stephan Koja, director of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), said in a statement that “Beyond the superficially amorous context, it is a fundamental statement about the essence of true love.”
Symbolism and technique
In Vermeer, 1632–1675 (2000), Norbert Schneider wrote that the open window represents "the woman's longing to extend her domestic sphere" beyond the constraints of her home and society, while the fruit "is a symbol of extramarital relations." Schneider concludes that the letter is a love letter either planning or continuing her illicit relationship. He supports the conclusion by observing, as revealed by x-rays of the canvas, that the work as produced by Vermeer portrayed painting of a putto, likely representing Cupid, hanging on the wall in the upper right portion of the piece. Another person painted over the image in the late 18th century so that the wall appeared blank. The overpainting was reversed by a restoration project conducted by the museum Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden from 2018-2021.
The draperies, hanging in the right foreground, are not an uncommon element for Vermeer, appearing in seven of his paintings. It is possible that the curtain on the right is referencing the common use of curtains to protect paintings. Even more common, the repoussoir appears in 25, with Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, one of three which feature a rug-covered table or balustrade between the figure and the viewer. It was the last painting in which Vermeer featured this device.
This painting and Officer and Laughing Girl represent the earliest known examples of the pointillé (not to be confused with pointillism) for which Vermeer became known. John Michael Montias in Vermeer and His Milieu (1991) points out the "tiny white globules" that can be seen in the brighter parts of both paintings, including the still life elements of both and the blond hair specifically in this work. This use of light may support speculation among art historians that Vermeer used a mechanical optical device, such as a double concave lens mounted in a camera obscura, to help him achieve realistic light patterns in his paintings.