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The Love Letter
Also titled De minnebrief
Willem Bartel van der Kooi (Augustinusga, 1768–1836)
1808
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 131 cm x width 108 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Gift of H. van der Kooi, Leeuwarden
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
Dutch artists of the 19th century drew inspiration from the 17th century, the Golden Age of Dutch art. In this picture, Van der Kooi reprised a typically 17th-century theme, the delivery of a love letter. The tension between the lady and the young messenger is almost palpable. Yet The Love Letter is also highly contemporary, for the interior, hairstyles and clothing are entirely in keeping with the fashions of 1808.