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The Love Letter
Also titled De liefdesbrief
Johannes Vermeer (Delft, 1632–1675)
c. 1669 - c. 1670
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 44 cm x width 38.5 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
- 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
Vermeer chose an unusual vantage point for this painting. From a dim space in the foreground, a glimpse is afforded of another room with a domestic scene. An elegantly dressed woman looks up expectantly at a maidservant, who has just handed her a letter. The seascape on the wall behind them may well allude to the epistle’s subject: during the 17th century, the sea was often compared to love, and the lover to a ship.
