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#295The world's most famous paintings

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Oil on canvas · 83 × 64.5 cm

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Where to see it

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden

About the painting

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.

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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.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Style, subject and colours

Similar works

Image: Johannes Vermeer; Wikimedia Commons · public domain

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window - Johannes Vermeer

Appearance

Ink & goldKemet blue, paper and gold - Nazrin's world Dark hallA museum at night: dark walls, light on the painting White cubeA bright gallery: white walls, black text and a garnet accent