The women that Vermeer painted are displayed below in chronological society.

Diana and her Companions

Diana and her Companions c. 1653–1656, Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 105 cm. (38 3/4 x 41 3/viii in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

Diana and her Companions

Diana and her Companions c. 1653–1656, Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 105 cm. (38 3/4 10 41 3/8 in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

Diana and her Companions

Diana and her Companions c. 1653–1656, Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 105 cm. (38 3/4 ten 41 3/8 in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

Diana and her Companions

Diana and her Companions c. 1653–1656, Oil on sheet, 98.v x 105 cm. (38 3/4 10 41 3/8 in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Procuress

The Procuress, 1656, Oil on sail, 143 x 130 cm. (56 one/8 x 51 one/8 in.), Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), Dresden

The Procuress

The Procuress, 1656, Oil on canvas, 143 x 130 cm. (56 one/8 10 51 one/8 in.), Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), Dresden

A Maid Asleep

A Maid Asleep, c. 1656–165, seven Oil on canvas, 87.six x 76.v cm. (34 ane/two x thirty ane/8 in.), Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York

The Milkmaid, c. 1657–1661, Oil on canvas, 45.five x 41 cm. (17 7/8 x 16 1/8 in.), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Drinking glass of Wine, c. 1658–1661, Oil on canvas, 65 x 77 cm. (25 5/8 ten xxx 1/4 in.), Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The Little Street, c. 1657–1661, Oil on sheet, 54.iii ten 44 cm. (21 3/8 ten 17 3/8 in.), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Fiddling Street, c. 1657–1661, Oil on canvas, 54.3 x 44 cm. (21 3/viii x 17 three/eight in.), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Girl with a Wine Glass, c. 1659–1662, Oil on sail, 78 x 67 cm. (30 3/4 x 26 3/eight in.), Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (Brunswick)

View of Delft, c. 1660–1663, Oil on sheet, 98.5 ten 117.5 cm. (38 3/iv x 46 1/four in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

View of Delft, c. 1660–1663, Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 117.5 cm. (38 3/iv x 46 one/4 in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Music Lesson, c. 1662–1665, Oil on canvas, 73.3 ten 64.5 cm. (28 7/eight x 25 three/8 in.), The Royal Collection, The Windsor Castle

The Music Lesson, c. 1662–1665, Oil on canvas, 73.3 ten 64.5 cm. (28 7/8 10 25 3/8 in.), The Majestic Collection, The Windsor Castle

Woman with a Lute, c. 1662–1665, Oil on canvas, 51.4 x 45.7 cm. (20 1/iv x xviii in.), Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York

Adult female with a Pearl Necklace, c. 1662–1665, Oil on canvas, 55 x 45 cm. (21 5/8 10 17 3/four in.), Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Woman Holding a Rest, c. 1662–1665, Oil on canvass, 42.5 x 38 cm. (16 three/4 x 15 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

The Concert, c. 1663–1666, Oil on canvas, 72.5 10 64.7 cm. (28 1/two 10 25 i/2 in.), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

The Concert, c. 1663–1666, Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 64.7 cm. (28 i/2 x 25 1/2 in.), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

A Lady Writing, c. 1662–1667, Oil on canvass, 45 10 39.9 cm. (17 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665–1667 Oil on sheet, 46.five 10 40 cm. (18 1/4 x fifteen one/four in.), Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague

Girl with a Ruby Hat, c. 1665–1667, Oil on panel, 23.ii x 18.1 cm. (9 one/viii x vii i/eight in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Mistress and Maid, c. 1666–1668, Oil on canvas, xc.2 x 78.7 cm. (35 1/2 x 31 in.), Frick Collection, New York

Mistress and Maid, c. 1666–1668, Oil on canvas, ninety.2 x 78.7 cm. (35 1/2 x 31 in.), Frick Collection, New York

Daughter with a Flute, c. 1665–1670, Oil on panel, 20 10 17.eight cm. (seven seven/8 x 7 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Report of a Young Woman, c. 1665–1674, Oil on sheet, 44.5 x 40 cm. (17 1/2 x xv iii/four in.), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Beloved Letter of the alphabet, c. 1667–1670, Oil on sheet, 44 x 38.5.cm. (17 3/viii 10 15 1/eight in.), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Love Letter, c. 1667–1670, Oil on canvas, 44 x 38.five.cm. (17 3/viii x fifteen ane/8 in.), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Lacemaker, c. 1669–1671, Oil on sail (fastened to panel), 24.5 x 21 cm. (9 five/8 ten 8 1/4 in.), Musée du Louvre, Paris

The Guitar Thespian, c. 1670–1673, Oil on canvas, 53 x 46.3 cm. (20 7/8 x xviii 1/4 in.), Kenwood House English Heritage as Trustees of the Iveagh Bequest, London

Allegory of Faith, c. 1670–1674, Oil on sheet, 114.3 10 88.nine cm. (45 x 35 in., ) Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York

Saint Praxedis, (attributed to Vermeer), 1655, Oil on canvas, 101.six x 82.6 cm. (twoscore x 32 one/2 in.), National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

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About Vermeer's Women

During the course of his brief xx yr career, Vermeer probably painted no more than 60 paintings, 36 (?) of which take come downwardly to usa today. Few other Dutch painters produced so few pictures. In Vermeer's compositions, women appear in one guise or another about 46 times, while men make only fourteen appearances, more often than not in subordinate roles, three times with their backs to u.s.. 2 lost paintings by Vermeer portrayed men, a self portrait and a "man washing his hands, both listed in the1696 auction catalogue of twenty paintings by Vermeer.

Critics have oft noted that the women in Vermeer's paintings cannot be considered beauties in the conventional sense of the word. Their beauty, instead, derives from the mode they are painted and from the harmonic context in which they inhabit. "The qualities that we attribute to Vermeer's work equally a whole utilize equally to the women they picture show: paintings and personages share nobility, equilibrium and an exceptional of both vivid presence and abstract purity. The figures range from girlish to maternal, all the same all are youthful, with high curved foreheads, features that evenly balance the individual and the classical, and unproblematic believable postures. Their costuming—its coloring, shapes and associations contributes so much to bodily construction and expression that the absence of nudes from Vermeer's oeuvre inappreciably seems surprising."i

None of the women who modeled for Vermeer'southward paintings accept ever been identified even though some seemed to have posed more once. Other than the dresses and jewelry which they wore and the poses that Vermeer instructed them to hold, nosotros know nothing else most their lives. Modern scholarship generally holds that they were non painted equally portraits except, perhaps, A Lady Writing in Washington. Even Vermeer'southward 4 bust-length figures, including the illustrious Girl with a Pearl Earring, were non intended as portraits, but tronien.

Vermeer'due south women were protagonists of a type of painting now called genre interior which was pioneered in the Netherlands during the first half of the seventeenth century by artists like Dirck Hals (1591–1656) and William Duyster (1599–1635). In these picture, a number of immature people are represented dressed in the latest and costliest fashions engaged in frivolous activities such as drinking, gaming and music-making. During the second half of the century, the number of figures was reduced profoundly and the erstwhile high-spirited interiors evolved into the kind measured, luminous interiors in which subtle nuances gesture, texture and light were explored. These interiors brought to formal and technical perfection past artists similar Gerrit ter Borch (1617–1681) and Pieter de Hooch, and only successively past Vermeer.

New Women In New Spaces

"Most of the genre paintings produced in this menstruation take place in an interior, more often than not inspired by elegant homes of the eye classes. They reflect concepts that were important to the Dutch culture such as family unit, privacy, intimacy, comfort and luxury, encouraging the spectator to recollect about bug relevant to his or her daily life, sometimes with touches of humor. Both from an anthropological and viewpoint likewise as an architectural and decorative one, they acquired and enormous importance in Holland in the 2nd half of the seventeenth century: the physical space of the of the upper middle classes expanded every bit the outcome of their growing wealth, dividing itself up into more spaces and offer to its inhabitants greater condolement and more private areas. The mode that genre painting moved indoors undoubtedly reflects this new involvement on the part of the Dutch at hits time in so space in which the played out their domestic lives. "2 In these private spaces, women caused a new importance.

"The emphasis on women is logical in the work of an artist who was entirely devoted to the painting of interiors, as the domestic infinite was the realm which society had assigned to woman. Nonetheless, while for De Hooch and Maes the, home was the setting for maternity and domestic tasks, Vermeer was alert to the appearance of a new type of woman, meliorate educated than her predecessors and more absorbed in her interior life. It is not by chance that among the innovations of interior paintings we find a sensibility towards the intimate psychology of individuals, given that the concept of an interior life was developing at simply this time. Street life and family life became more separated in houses at this menses and more private spaces and areas for withdrawing begun to appear. Although these were generally reserved for men, Vermeer'south women oft seem to contain the moral and intellectual intensity which is associated with psychological introspection."three

Were some of the Women in Vermeer's Paintings Pregnant?

Even though to the modern eye three or perhaps four womenfour in Vermeer'south paintings announced to be pregnant, there is adept reason to believe that this was not the case. According to the Dutch costume expert Marieke de Winkel, pregnancy "was not a common subject in art and there are very few depictions of maternity wear. Even in religious paintings such as the Visitation, where depictions of pregnant women is required, the bodies of the Virgin and Saint Elizabeth were usually completely concealed by draperies"5 De Winkel submits that to her knowledge "there are no examples of or pregnant women in Dutch portraiture, an interesting fact considering that many women were painted in their first year of wedlock, a time when they could have been with child." Pregnancy was most likely non seen as aesthetically bonny. However, it should be mentioned that in a full-length pendant of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit painted by Rembrandt in 1634, Oopjen appears to be visibly pregant: she gave birth to her showtime kid shortly after the flick was finished.

Arthur One thousand. Wheelock Jr. has written that "Dutch fashions in the mid-seventeenth century seemed to have encourage a bulky silhouette. The impression of the short jacket worn over a thickly padded brim creates in Vermeer's painting in particular may create only such an impression." It is interesting to note that in the 1696 Dissius auction in which 21 paintings by Vermeer were sold, the Adult female Holding Balance was described as "A young lady weighing gold, in a box, by J. van der Meer of Delft, extraordinarily artful and vigorously painted." Since pregnancy was non portrayed in Dutch painting of the seventeenth century, information technology is odd that the catalogue's author would non have noted such an infrequent fact. Afterward, no mention of the woman'due south pregnancy in relation to Vermeer's paintings can be institute until 1971, despite the fact that the work can be traced in an nigh unbroken line to this century.

Modernistic scholars by and large believe that Vermeer systematically drew upon fellow genre painters of the time such as Gerrit ter Borch, Frans van Mieris, Gerard Dou for both his compositions and themes. He did not essentially subvert or even significantly widen established iconographical boundaries simply rather seemed completely absorbed in realizing their fullest expressive potential. In this light, it seems hundred-to-one that Vermeer addressed such an unconventional theme such equally that of a pregnant women.

Comments by Art Critics

The following interpretations range from finely reasoned contextual studies of the life and times of Vermeer by Mariët Westermann, to the ultimately subjective, merely however indispensable, interpretations of Lawrence Gowing and Edward Snowfall. Too, what now seems a remote "fine art-for art'south-sake" view of Vermeer's models as zippo more illuminated surfaces, are also included and perhaps should not be dismissed and so easily past the information provided past the lasted 20 years of intense iconographic studies. The entries are arranged in reversed chronological club.

Mariët Westermann
"Vermeer and the Self Aware Interior," in Vermeer and the Dutch Interior, ed. Alejandro Vergara, Madrid, 2003, p. 229.

Fifty-fifty if Vermeer gives us hints about the narrative that may have led to the moment represented in his pictures of readers and writers—pregnancy in the Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, a crumpled alphabetic character on the floor in front end of the desk in the Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid—he gives us no dues equally to its denouement. As and then oftentimes in Vermeer's piece of work, we have a sense of proto-cinematic suspense, in that we take no indication of what the next frame will show. What all his writing and reading women take in mutual, still, is a chapters for absorption in a text, and thus for independent thought. This mental ability is figured not merely by the theme of writing and reading or past averted gazes. Vermeer established the seriousness of these women near literate activeness with great pictorial subtlety, as it were making his own thoughtful compositions represent the mental action of his actors. It is surely no blow that the vanishing point in the Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid lies precisely in her left mitt, which is rigorously focused on the task of writing. The figure in Adult female in Blue Reading a Letter is anchored in a geometrically calibrated composition, restricted in colour, that forces our focus on the woman's face and letter of the alphabet, thus on her human activity of reading.

Anthony Bailey
Vermeer: A View of Delft, New York, 2001, pp. 121–123.

Rather than feeling the demand to rebel against women in his house, Vermeer seems rather to have been absorbed in them. The feminine enveloped him and he was a willing and happy victim. Although not all the women he painted are conventionally skillful- looking, he apparently liked painting women's skin and their clothes and accouterments. Did he say to them, 'Please wear such-and-such a dress', 'Those pearl earrings today', or 'Do your hair with those blue ribbons -they make you look so pretty'? Or did he take them as they come, peradventure already dressed for the occasion, dressed for him? He enjoyed catching the self-regard of a young woman looking in a mirror as she put on a necklace. The challenge of portraying the folds in the much seen yellow jacket or the sheen, shadows and creases of the ruby-red clothes worn by the Girl existence offered Wine clearly excited him. (The upshot was fine art, otherwise ane might accept said information technology sexually excited him.) His repertoire included many of the means women utilize to hold on to male interest, from the devoted care, both practical and spiritual, that Martha and Mary had shown, to more enticing types of allure, such as subtleties of hair-do. Hair is pulled straight back from the forehead, held in identify with bows, tied in a bun or braided in a chignon -these are the ways of arrangement in A Lady Writing; in the young adult female playing the keyboard instrument, a clavecin, in The Concert; of the mistress in the Mistress and Maid; and in the Woman with a Pearl Necklace. Ringlets are the favored style in The Lacemaker, in the Girl Reading a Letter of the alphabet at an Open Window (who likewise has a chignon), and in The Guitar Player. Other women take their heads modestly covered with scarves or hoods, or wrapped in a silk turban, similar the Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Lisa Vergara
"Perspectives on Women in the Art of Vermeer," in The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer (Cambridge Companions to the History of Art), edited by Wayne Franits, Cambridge, 2001, p. 62.

Regarding the concept of figuration in the Adult female Property a Residual, it is useful to consider some remarks fabricated past Vermeer's swain painter, Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678). In his long treatise on art, Van Hoogstraten writes that if a painting is to attain the highest level (the third level, in his scheme), then it must show the noblest emotions and desires of rational human beings. The talent needed to describe more than than "mere animate being passions," Van Hoogstraten feels, is spread very thin. Interesting in this context is the fact that he cites painters of "the loveliest young women in every town." He writes (abruptly turning to portraiture): "Indeed, those portrait painters who brand reasonable likenesses, and imitate eyes and noses and mouths all prettily, I would not wish to place…above the kickoff class, unless they make their faces overflow with the quality of the intellectual soul…" The Adult female Holding a Balance demonstrates that Vermeer'southward achievement is of the highest rank, because through his figure'south brandish of womanly judiciousness, her seemingly blessed maternal country, her visual associations with Mary, her confidence in the face of Judgment, nosotros practise indeed get a sense of what Van Hoogstraten called "the noblest emotions and desires of rational homo beings." Further, as in all of Vermeer'southward paintings (and this separates them from works by his contemporaries), here the window reveals no view outside. The woman's resulting privacy inside the enclosed interior becomes a metaphor for her ain interiority, her own soul within.

Reviewing his cast of female characters, we tin easily see how often Vermeer suggests through them the workings of the mind and the tillage of the spirit that come together in the course of commonplace notwithstanding highly civilized activities. Not surprisingly, his women express habits of heed, hand and heart akin to those we imagine the creative person himself exercising as he planned and painted his pictures. This certainly pertains to the Adult female Property Residue. For example, Edward Snow, prompted past the fact that the pans of the calibration are empty except for gleams of light, observes of the adult female'southward action: "It seems appropriate that a gesture so paradigmatic of Vermeer'south art, should appear concerned with the weighing and balancing of light itself." Indeed, the gesture requires precise coordination of delicate physical and mental calculations the same capacities that Vermeer's art demanded from him. In The Milkmaid, the figure's human activity of directing a stream of liquid straight down brings to mind one of Vermeer's ain near distinctive pictorial habits: the ensure, mimetic application of paint (here representing milk) over carefully plotted straight lines. No wonder his perspectives on women tend to strike viewers equally sympathetic; consistently, the figures' gestures refer back to the very processes of his art. Even in the example of male characters, Vermeer avoids actions more than readily associated with masculinity, those requiring concrete exertion, vigorous motility, forceful contention.

Edward Snow
A Written report of Vermeer
Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1979, pp. 35–36.

In the majority of the early paintings, the depicted situation itself provides the occasion for what tends to be a negative identification on the role of the artist: men either paying court to or supervising women, waiting upon them-worldly, overshadowing, equivocally motivated visitors who are usually encumbered and ill-at-ease in a space that tends for the adult female to be a natural, often aggressively protective habitat.

Vermeer's capacity for negativity is uncomfortably evident in the three closely related genre scenes, Adult female Drinking with a Gentleman, Admirer and Girl with Music, and the Brunswick Couple with a Glass of Wine. In these paintings, the attention that man pays to woman—acutely isolated by Gowing as the theme of all Vermeer's work—elicits from the painter a deliberately acid response. All three give the impression of unhappily willed failures, rather than only young or otherwise inadequate attempts at a conventional genre scene.