Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid [SEP] creator
Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid
Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid is a painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, completed in 1670–1671 and held in the National Gallery of Ireland. The work shows a middle-class woman attended by a housemaid who is presumably acting as messenger and go-between for the lady and her lover. The work is seen as a bridge between the quiet restraint and self-containment of Vermeer's work of the 1660s and his relatively cooler work of the 1670s. It may have
Vermeer in May 1672, "Writing to Vermeer" is composed for three women singers (two sopranos and a mezzo-soprano) each of whom writes six letters to Vermeer in his absence. Several of Vermeer's paintings portray women writing or reading letters, including "Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid", "The Love Letter", and "A Lady Writing a Letter". Andriessen said of his decision to accept Greenaway's proposal for the libretto: "I feel very close to the attitude of the painter