Vermeer, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter 1662-1665
A Sunday afternoon at the Getty to see a spectacular Vermeer - easy to love this artist of the gentle moments of courtship and young love. A young woman, who resembles Vermeer's wife, stands at an open window wearing a bed jacket. She has interrupted her morning's preparations, her pearl necklace lying on the table, to eagerly read a letter, not even taking time to seat herself. On the wall behind her is a large map, suggesting that someone in the household travels, as would be common in that sea-faring prosperous country.
Most critics suggest or acquiesce that the woman may be pregnant, which adds to the drama. Will the loved one arrive home in time to attend the birth? My painting teacher suggests that she has merely rolled up the waist of her skirt to adjust its length. But after looking closely at the painting on the Getty website, the fabric of the jacket seems stretched over a swelling stomach. My idea is that this painting is a secular Annunciation. Because? Of the quality of the light and the spiritual, meditative, accepting intimacy - the window is invisible, as the Holy Spirit moves invisibly in the balance of the Trinity.
The tone and mood of the painting is calm interiority, lit by clear creamy thin sunlight. Spaces, color harmonies and values, and perspective relations have all been carefully arranged to create this mood. ("...heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter...").
Such lovely subtle colors, such glowing, lambent softness. A lesson in attending to the beauty of the ordinary, the lived life that is to be valued beyond worldly signifiers of prestige.
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