Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk
Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)ca. 1662–64
oil on panel
39.4 x 33.5 cm
signed in dark paint, upper left corner: “G.Metsu”
GM-110© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. “Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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A lady in a black fur-trimmed jacket and brownish skirt has paused from her letter toComparative Figures

look at the viewer in a friendly fashion, with a slight smile crossing her face. Poised
to resume writing as soon as the interruption has passed, she sits with her right handholding her quill pen above an inkwell resting on the tapestry-covered table before
her. Adding to the momentary character of the scene is the inquisitive small brown
and white dog by the woman’s side, who peers toward the table while balancing
expectantly on one paw. Although the content of the letter is unknown, it isundoubtedly amorous in nature, as is the case with virtually all Dutch seventeenthcentury high-life genre scenes of letter writers. Images of ships at sea appear withsome frequency in the background of such works, evoking the traditional notion thatlove is as changeable as the sea.[1] A calm sea, as evident in this seascape, wasconsidered a good omen for the relationship between two lovers.
Together with Metsu’s celebrated companion pieces Man Writing a Letter and Woman

Fig 1. Gabriel Metsu, Man Writing a
Letter, ca. 1664–66, oil on panel, 52.5
x 40.2 cm, National Gallery of Ireland,
NGI.4536

Reading a Letter in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin ((fig 1) and (fig 2)),Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk from 1662–64 is one of the artist’s most mature
depictions of elegant individuals engaged in amorous correspondence.[2] Metsu was
undoubtedly inspired to paint scenes of letter writers by Gerard ter Borch (1617–81),
whose images of men and women writing, reading, receiving and sealing letters also
prompted other artists, including Caspar Netscher (ca. 1639–84), Frans van Mieris(1635–81), and Johannes Vermeer (1632–75), to focus on this type of subject
matter.[3] The most influential of Ter Borch’s letter writing scenes was A Woman
Writing a Letter of ca. 1655–56 (fig 3), although how the artist’s contemporaries
would have known this painting is uncertain.[4] Metsu certainly had seen it by1657–59, when he painted A Woman Drawing (fig 4). In this work, he followed Ter
Borch’s concept of a pensive female figure working at a table, but changed thesubject to a drawing after a statue instead of a woman writing a letter.

Fig 2. Gabriel Metsu, Woman Readinga Letter, ca. 1664–66, oil on panel,
52.5 x 40.2 cm, National Gallery of
Ireland, NGI.4537

In the present painting, Metsu presented the letter writer as a striking beauty smilingseductively at the spectator, a shift of focus that reflects the artist’s customary mannerof adapting Ter Borch’s compositions in the 1660s. Metsu frequently appropriated
Ter Borch’s subjects and figure groups, but loosened the social and emotional corsetof that master’s elegant ladies and gentlemen. Metsu repeatedly depicted womeninteracting with and inviting the viewer to take part in courting rituals. Likewise, hegenerally placed his figures in more fancifully conceived, opulent interiors than did
Ter Borch. Here, he placed the letter writer in front of a white and red marble
mantelpiece comprising Corinthian columns and an elaborately carved frieze, which
is based on a chimneypiece in the Burgomasters’ Council Chamber of the Amsterdam
Town Hall.[5] This building, designed by Jacob van Campen (1596–1657), was so
splendid that the Dutch considered it to be the Eighth Wonder of the World.[6] ThisFig 3. Gerard ter Borch, A Woman
Writing a Letter, ca. 1655–56, oil on© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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visual reference to an architectural element in this grandiose building communicatedto the viewer that the woman belonged to the highest echelons of Dutch society, an

panel, 39 x 29.5 cm, Mauritshuis, The
Hague, 797

evocation of luxury that would have appealed strongly to Metsu’s wealthy Amsterdam
clientele.
Many of Metsu’s genre scenes painted during the last few years of his life depict
women whose facial features are based in various degrees on those of his wife,
Isabella de Wolff. Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk, however, is an exception. The
woman’s pronounced eyelids and broad nose bridge are not those of the artist’s
spouse. Her features are so distinctive that it is probable that the painting is a portraitof a woman posing as a letter writer; the ring on her finger may indicate that she ismarried. As such, the painting is similar to a portrait Metsu completed during the lastyear of his life that has a similar genre-like character: Portrait of Lucia Wijbrants(?),
probably commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Jan Jacobsz Hinlopen.[7]About two to four years after Metsu completed Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk,
Vermeer also painted an attractive letter-writing woman smiling subtly at the viewer

Fig 4. Gabriel Metsu, A Woman
Drawing, 1657–59, oil on panel, 36.3
x 30.7 cm, Presented by the 1st
Viscount Rothermere, 1940, The
National Gallery, London, NG
5225, © National Gallery, London /Art Resource, NY(fig 5). Although the works differ in many respects, the paintings share the portraitlike character of the women, who differ from the other figure types in the rest of theartists’ oeuvres. It remains undetermined whether these similarities are the result of
the two artists independently transforming Ter Borch’s image in the same way, or
whether the Delft painter knew Metsu’s painting, which was probably part of acollection in Amsterdam.[8]- Adriaan Waiboer, 2017

Fig 5. Johannes Vermeer, A Lady
Writing, ca. 1665, oil on canvas, 45 x
39.9 cm, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, Gift of Harry Waldron
Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer,Jr., in memory of their father, Horace
Havemeyer, 1962.10.1© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. See, for instance, Eddy de Jongh, ed., Tot Lering en vermaak: betekenissen van Hollandse
genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976),
121, who cites a poem by Jan Hermansz Krul: “Wel te recht mach Liefde by de Zee vergeleecken
werden / aenghesien haer veranderinge / die d’eene uyr hoop / d’ander uyr vreese doet veroorsaecken:
even gaet het met een Minnaer / als het een Schipper doet / de welcke sich op Zee beghevende / d’eenedagh goedt we’er/d’ander dagh storm en bulderende wint gewaer wort” (Love may rightly be comparedwith the sea / from the viewpoint of her changes / which one hour causes hope / the next fear: so toogoes it with a lover / who like a skipper / who journeys to the sea / one day encounters good weather /the next storm and roaring winds). Jan Harmenszoon Krul, Minne-beelden: Toe-gepast de lievende
ionckheyt (Amsterdam, 1640), 2–3; translation taken from Peter C. Sutton, “Love Letters: Dutch Genre
Painting in the Age of Vermeer,” in Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer, ed. Peter
C. Sutton (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Arts andSciences) (New Haven, 2003), 45.
2. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 255–58,
nos A-166, A-177, both ill. Metsu painted no fewer than nine such scenes, the earliest of which dates
from around 1657–59.
3. Peter C. Sutton in Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer, ed. Peter C. Sutton (Exh.
cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences) (NewHaven, 2003), 92. For Netscher’s painting, see Marjorie Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 57–58, 181, no. 23, color pl. 5; for Van Mieris’s
paintings, see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981),
2:95–96, nos. 82, 83, ill.
4. They may have seen it at the home of the Rotterdam architect and painter Jacob Lois (ca. 1620–76),
whose posthumous inventory included a painting described as “a writing woman by Ter Borch” (“EenSchryvent vroutgen van Ter Borch”). Abraham Bredius, Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte derholländischen Kunst des XVI., XVII. und XVIII. Jahrhunderts, 8 vols. (The Hague, 1915–22), 4: 589;
Sturla Gudlaugsson, Gerard ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2: 126. The same or anotherpainting, described as “Een brieveschrijfstertje gedaan na ‘t schijnt door Gerard ter Burg“ (A woman
writing a letter, as it appears, by Gerard ter Burg), was in the collection of Albert Houting, a secretary of
the Dutch East India Company, at the moment when his estate was drawn up in Amsterdam, in April
1704 (Getty Provenance Index, Archival Inventory N-451 [Houting], no. 24).
5. Peter C. Sutton in Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer, ed. Peter C. Sutton (Exh.
cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences) (NewHaven, 2003), 134; see also Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné(New Haven, 2012), 73.
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6. Eymert-Jan Goossens, Schat van beitel en penseel: Het Amsterdamse stadhuis uit de Gouden Eeuw
(Amsterdam and Zwolle, 1996), 11.
7. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 95, 142,
230, no. A-87, ill.; 271–72, no. A-132, ill.; Irene Groeneweg, “Regenten in het zwart: vroom en deftig?”
Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 46 (1995): 201–4; Sturla Gudlaugsson, “Kanttekeningen bij de
ontwikkeling van Metsu,” Oud Holland 83 (1968): 26 n. 32, 35.
8. For more on Vermeer’s painting, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., The Collection of the National Gallery of
Art Systematic Catalogues: Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century (Washington, D.C., 1995), 377–82,
ill.

Provenance
Dr. Van Cleef (d. 1861), Utrecht (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 4–5 April 1864, no. 59 [for 5,020
francs]).
Marquis Da Fosse, Lisbon, Portugal.
Charles T. Yerkes (1837–1905), New York, by 1893 (his sale, American Art Association, Mendelssohn
Hall, New York, 5–8 April 1910, no. 98 [for $17,200 to Kleinberger Galleries, Paris and New York]).
Oscar Huldschinsky (1846–1931), Berlin.
James Simon (1851–1932), Berlin, by 1914.
[Haberstock, Berlin, by 1924].
Leo van den Bergh, Berlin (his sale, Mak van Waay, Graupe, Amsterdam, 5–6 November 1935, no. 13[for 14,000 florins to Van Raalte]).
Arthur Hartog (1892–1986), Wassenaar, by 1935; removed from his house by the Nazi occupation
authorities in December 1941 (sale, 16 January 1942 [to Adolf Hitler for his Gemäldegalerie Linz, no.
2167]); recorded at the Munich Central Collecting Point, 15 July 1945, no. 4315; restituted to theStichting Nederlandsch Kunstbezit, 9 October 1945; returned to Arthur Hartog, March 1948, London,
New York, by 1952; by descent to private collection, New York (sale, Christie’s, New York, 27 January
2000, no. 76 [to private collection]).
Private collection, Darien, Conn., 2000 [Otto Naumann, Ltd., 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Berlin, Königlichen Akademie der Künste, “Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbezitz
der Mitglieder des Kaiser Friedrich Museum-Vereins,” May 1914, no. 103 [lent by James Simon].
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, “Oude Kunst uit Haagsch bezit,” 12 December 1936–31 January 1937,
no. 63 [lent by Arthur Hartog].
The Hague, Mauritshuis, “Herwonnen kunstbezit: Tentoonstelling van uit Duitschland teruggekeerde
nederlandsche kunstschatten,” March–May 1946, no. 35 [lent by Stichting Nederlandsch Kunstbezit].
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, “Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer,” 1
October–31 December 2003; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Art and Science, 31 January–2 May
2004, no. 15 [lent by Mr. Robert McKeon].
San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, “Gabriel Metsu: The Love Letter,” 15 May–29 August 2004 [nonumber, lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, March 2009–31 July2010 [lent by the present owner].
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, “Gabriel Metsu,” 4 September–5 December 2010; Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum, 16 December 2010–21 March 2011; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 10
April–24 July 2011, no. 36 [lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, August
2011–September 2012 [lent by the present owner].
Rome, Scuderie Del Quirinale, “Joannes Vermeer and the Golden Age of Dutch Art,” 26 September
2012–20 January 2013 [lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, January
2013–November 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre / Vermeer and the Masters of
Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry,” 20 February–22 May 2017; Dublin, National Gallery of
Ireland, 17 June–17 September 2017; Washington, National Gallery of Art, 22 October–21 January
2018 [lent by the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].
San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, “Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 21 September–31 December 2022 [lent by the present owner].

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References
Yerkes, Charles T. Catalogue from Collection of Charles T. Yerkes, Chicago, U.S.A. Chicago, 1893, no.
30.
Stephens, F. G. “Mr. Yerkes’ Collection at Chicago: The Old Masters, II.” Magazine of Art (March
1895): 143, 147.
Yerkes, Charles T. Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of Charles T. Yerkes Esq. 2
vols. New York, 1904, 1: no. 60.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of
the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke. 1:
275–76, no. 76a. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols.
Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Königlichen Akademie der Künste. Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbezitz derMitglieder des Kaiser Friedrich Museum-Vereins. Exh. cat. Berlin, Königlichen Akademie der Künste.
Berlin, 1914, 30, no. 103.
Gemeentemuseum. Oude Kunst uit Haagsch Bezit. Exh. cat. The Hague, Gemeentemuseum. The Hague,
1936, 34, no. 120.
Mauritshuis. Herwonnen kunstbezit: tentoonstelling van uit Duitschland teruggekeerde nederlandsche
kunstschatten. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1946, no. 35.
Robinson, Franklin W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre Painting of theGolden Age. New York, 1974, 85 n. 103.
Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveursde tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers. 10 vols.
Paris, 1976. Revised edition by Jacques Busse. 14. vols. Paris, 1999, 9:537.
Ydema, Onno. Carpets and Their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings 1540–1700. Zutphen, 1991,
164–65, no. 518.
Sutton, Peter C., Lisa Vergara, and Ann Jensen Adams eds. Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Ageof Vermeer. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Connecticut, Bruce Museum ofArts and Sciences. New Haven, 2003, 133–35, no. 20.
Schwarz, Birgit. Hitlers Museum: Die fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz—Dokumente zum “Führermuseum.”
Vienna-Cologne-Weimar, 2004, 325.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): Life and Work.” PhD diss. New York University,
2007, 1: 210–11n4, 730–31, no. A-120, 4:1169.
Franits, Wayne F. “Gabriel Metsu and the Art of Luxury.” In Gabriel Metsu. Edited by Adriaan E.
Waiboer, 58–60, fig. 43. Exh. cat., Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum;Washington, National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2010.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Waiboer, Adriaan E., ed. Gabriel Metsu. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum; Washington, National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2010, 195, no. 40.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven and London,
2012, 111, 250, no. A-108.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Donna che scribe una lettera.” In Vermeer: Il secolo d’Oro dell’arte olandese.
Edited by Sandrina Bandera, Walter Liedtke, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie delQuirinale. Milan, 2012, 158, 159.
Van Elk, Martine. Early Modern Women’s Writing: Domesticity, Privacy, and the Public Sphere in
England and the Dutch Republic. London, 2017, 60.
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. “Épistolières.” In Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre. Edited byAdriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 208, 211, cat.no. 8. Exh. cat. Paris,
Louvre Museum; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, National Gallery of Art. Paris, 2017.
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. “Pen to Paper.” In Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration andRivalry. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 122, 124–25, 245,
cat. no. 2.2. Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre Museum; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, National
Gallery of Art. New Haven and London, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 17; 29. Translated by
Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 128–29; 237, no. 31. Translated by
Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer andthe Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019.
[Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 155, no. 75. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre
Painting. Exh. brochure. San Diego, Timken Museum of Art. San Diego, 2022, fig. 3.

Versions
Versions and Copies© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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1. J. Rombouts, watercolor. L. Dupper Wz., Dordrecht (his sale, Roos…Engelberts, Dordrecht, 28–29 June
1870, no. 283, as J. Rombouts after G. Metzu).

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak, has 1.5 cm–wide oak additions on all foursides. A photograph of the painting dated 1895 shows the enlarged panel and composition, which indicatesthe restoration took place prior to that date.[1] Narrow wood shims have been applied to all four sides, and theenlarged panel has been marouflaged to a radially cut oak plank and cradled. Three paper labels are affixed
to the cradle members and a red wax seal is located on the marouflage panel between the cradle members,
but there are no import stamps, panel maker’s marks or machine toolmarks.
A creamy brown-colored, thinly and evenly applied ground remains visible along the outer contours of the
figure and acts as a mid-tone in the composition. The paint has been applied in thin layers over opaque layers
along the gray and light brown shadows of the white head covering, the flesh tones, the subtle changes oftone in the skirt, the black ribbons of the jacket, and the decoration of the oriental carpet. Small details suchas the red in the corner of the figure’s eyes and the minute dots of yellow and white suggest light reflecting
off the figure’s jewelry, the dog’s pearl collar and blue ribbon, the ornamentation on the upper part of thefireplace, and the lid of the inkwell. The texture of the white fur trim of the figure’s jacket and the dog has
been achieved with a thicker application of underlying paint.
The figure’s position within the composition, the quill in her hand, her earrings and garments, the carpeted
table, and the dog are found to have been painted in reserve, which indicates they were carefully planned. In
contrast, the mantelpiece, chair, and painting in the background do not appear to have been included in theinitial design. Both the chair and the framed seascape painting were added after the brown wash of the
background was painted. The yellow highlights found in the frame of the painting in the background extend,
wet-on-dry, onto the white satin veil of the sitter and onto the dark brown of the chair, showing us that thesehighlights were painted at a later time when the underlying paint was dry.
A graphite underdrawing is revealed in infrared images captured at 900–1700 nanometers along the carpet
design and the contour lines of the figure and dog. The images also reveal minor compositional changes tothe position of the dog’s proper right leg and the third finger of the figure’s proper left hand.
The painting is signed in dark paint along the upper left corner but is undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2004 and remains in a good state of preservation.[2]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. According to a 2012 examination report by Devi Ormond, associate paintings conservator, J. Paul Getty
Museum, Los Angeles, the photograph was provided by the Leiden Collection.
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2. Entry based on 2012 examination report by Devi Ormond, associate paintings conservator, J. Paul Getty
Museum, Los Angeles.

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