Brieflesende Frau

In the 1660s Dutch painters were fascinated by the private drama of the letter, the same years Vermeer was working the theme a short distance away. Metsu made this around 1665, one of a pair, its companion showing a man writing. A well-dressed young woman has kicked off a slipper and turned toward the window to read, tilting the page into the light and away from her maid. The maid, meanwhile, does something for us. She lifts a curtain hanging over a picture on the wall, revealing a ship tossed on a rough sea, a stock image for love in stormy weather and a hint at what the letter contains. Look closely at the letter in the maid's own hand and it is addressed to Metsu in Amsterdam, the painter signing his work as a quiet joke.