Girl with a Red Hat

This is one of the smallest things Vermeer ever made, about the size of a sheet of paper, and unusually for him it is painted on wood rather than canvas, on a panel he seems to have reused. It probably dates to the late 1660s. The girl turns over the back of a chair, half in shadow, under a great soft red hat that throws her eyes into darkness. It is not really a portrait of anyone; the Dutch called this kind of picture a tronie, a study of a face in fancy costume made to show off the painter's touch. And the touch here is loose and quick, little wet dabs of light on the lion-head finials of the chair, close to the way Vermeer began a picture rather than how he usually finished one.