Larger than most paintings by Vermeer known today, this painting may have been commissioned for a particular place, such as over a mantel. Its dark, flat background sets it apart from many of the other genre scenes by the artist, including the two other Vermeer canvases in the Frick’s collection. While Vermeer often set his interior scenes in light-filled spaces decorated with paintings, tapestries, or wall maps, the dark background of this painting focuses attention on the drama of what is taking place, as a maid passes a letter to her seated employer, who is so struck by what the maid has said that she has dropped her pen and raised a hand to her chin in a gesture of concern or surprise. The mistress-and-maid theme was a popular subject for Dutch genre scenes of the seventeenth century, as was the drama and intrigue around the exchange of letters.
Recent technical examination revealed surprising discoveries about how Vermeer modified the composition and how its appearance has changed since its creation. The dark background was originally a green curtain but changed color over the centuries due to the fading of certain pigments. Looking closely, one can still make out the folds of a curtain drawn to the right. X-rays revealed at least four figures had been painted under the curtain. It turns out that Vermeer had planned to include the same kind of figural background seen in his other genre scenes—perhaps a painting on the wall behind, or more likely a tapestry—but changed his mind and covered it with a green curtain instead.
Like the background, the blue tablecloth has also changed color. It was originally green, much like a green tablecloth that was listed among Vermeer’s possessions after his death. It is unknown who owned the other valuable objects in this scene: the glass and metal writing set; the veneered box—possibly made in Goa, India, which was then a Portuguese colony; the enormous pearl earring worn by the seated woman. The pearl is so large, and thus would have been so exorbitantly costly, that it has been suggested by modern scholars to be a fake, made of polished tin or glass.
This is the last work of art that Henry Clay Frick acquired before his death, in 1919.
Mistress and Maid
Vermeer chose a large canvas for this composition, which presents two women pondering a newly arrived letter. Depicting an interior domestic scene like so many of Vermeer's images, the painting explores the relationship between mistresses and maids and the writing and receiving of letters, two popular themes in the art and literature of the period. It also demonstrates Vermeer's technical virtuosity: bravura strokes suggest the pleating of the yellow mantle; shorter, bold strokes signify the flickering light reflected on the glassware; and dots of impasto convey the shimmer of the pearls. An observed lack of modeling, especially in the mistress's profile and hands, is a feature that has caused some scholars to declare the painting unfinished. While the figures are not as highly finished as in earlier paintings by Vermeer's oeuvre, this assessment stems from a misunderstanding of the artist's stylistic evolution. The soft articulation of her form imbues the figure with a sense of movement−her mouth open and on the verge of speech, her hand rising to her chin in thought, her eye addressing the maid and at the same time gazing past her. It has also been suggested that the painting's dark background meant that the work was incomplete at the time of Vermeer's death and the background filled in, by another hand, to make it saleable. Infrared reflectography (IRR) of the canvas, conducted in 2018, refutes this and reveals that Vermeer originally included a multi-figural pictorial element in the background, possibly meant to represent a tapestry, which he later painted out to better focus attention on the woman's interactions.
Possibly Vermeer sale, 1696, Amsterdam, Lot 7, sold for 70 florins. Lebrun sale, March 22, 1810, Paris, Lot 143, sold for 601 francs to Chevallier. Paillet sale, 1818, Paris, sold for 460 francs. Duchesse de Berri sale, April 4–6, 1837, Paris, Lot 76, sold for 4,015 francs. Dufour, Marseilles (1859). E. Secrétan sale, July 1, 1889, Paris, Lot 139, sold for 75,000 francs to Sedelmeyer. A. Paulovtsof, St. Petersburg. Lawrie and Co. Sulley and Co., London (1905). James Simon, Berlin (1906). Abraham Preyer, The Hague (with the assistance of Duveen Brothers and Scott Fowles). Frick, 1919.
