Young Woman Seated in an Interior,Reading a Letter
Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)ca. 1658–61
oil on panel
25.8 x 21 cmGM-103© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
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How to cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. “Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 4thed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Elizabeth Nogrady with Caroline Van Cauwenberge. New York, 2023–.
https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-young-woman-seated-in-an-interior-reading-a-letter/ (accessed November 10,2024).
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Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
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Gabriel Metsu was a master at rendering the sense of expectation and anticipation that

Comparative Figures

occurs when one reads a letter from a loved one. Here, a young woman, sitting
demurely near her sewing basket and with a sewing cushion on her lap, looks down toread the letter that has arrived while she was diligently engaged in her needlework.
The scene is quiet and still, with the only semblance of movement being the slightsmile that crosses her face as she reads her lover’s missive. Although not privy to thetext, the viewer is a silent witness to this tender and private moment.
Metsu, who was always keen to respond to contemporary trends in Dutch genre
painting, was an avid painter of scenes of amorous correspondence, a popular theme
for artists painting during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The appeal ofthese works reflects the important role of letter writing in the Netherlands. The ability
to compose eloquent messages was an indication of civility and education, even if thewriter made use of the letter-writing manuals that were widely available in the Dutch
Republic.[1] The subject allowed artists to create engaging images of men and womenFig 1. Gerard ter Borch, A Woman
Writing a Letter, ca. 1655–66, oil onpanel, 39 x 29.5 cm, Mauritshuis, TheHague, 797

either reading a billet-doux from a lover or searching for words to express their own
feelings on paper.
Metsu made no fewer than nine images of men or women reading or writing love
letters from the late 1650s to the mid-1660s.[2] Young Woman Seated in an Interior,
Reading a Letter is the earliest of the three representations of a female letter reader hemade during this period. He executed it around 1658–61, just as he began shifting hisattention from working maids to elegant women engaged in leisurely pastimes.[3] The
young woman’s clothes, earrings and silver ear picker (an ornamented tool to clean
the ear canal) hanging on a chain attached to a blue velvet purse clearly associate herwith the middle class.
Metsu’s approach to this subject owes much to the paintings of pensive women
writing and reading letters that Gerard ter Borch (1617–81) made in the mid-1650s.
Indeed, Ter Borch may be credited with inspiring not only Metsu’s interest inFig 2. Gerard ter Borch, A Woman
with a Wine Glass Reading a Letter, ca.
1656–57, oil on canvas, 37.5 x 28.7
cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt amMain, 1055

depicting the theme of amorous correspondence, but also that of Pieter de Hooch(1629–84), Frans van Mieris (1635–81), Johannes Vermeer (1632–75), and Caspar
Netscher (ca. 1639–84).
Two of Ter Borch’s paintings in particular, A Woman Writing a Letter from ca.
1655–56 (fig 1) and A Woman with a Wine Glass Reading a Letter (fig 2) from about
one to two years later, seem to have inspired Metsu when making this work.[4] TerBorch situated the women in these paintings seated close to the picture plane andplaced them against a dark background. Metsu freely adapted these compositionalfeatures in making this painting, but in doing so he created an image more tranquiland intimate than those created by Ter Borch, partly by painting his scene in a smaller© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 4 of 9format and placing his figure nearer the front of the picture plane. Whereas TerBorch incorporated two to three areas of color to enliven his scenes—the women’sclothes, the carpets on the tables, and the upholstery of a chair—Metsu limited hisbright color—the red of the bodice—to the woman herself.[5]Ter Borch often used his half-sister Gesina (1631–90) as a model for his genre scenes
and, in a similar fashion, Metsu frequently painted his own wife, Isabella de Wolff, indomestic roles, as he did here. Though Metsu did not portray her accurately in all ofthese scenes, her facial features are generally recognizable even if her appearance
varies from one work to the next.[6] When Metsu painted this work, Isabella had been
his wife only briefly: the couple had married in Enkhuizen in May 1658. Isabella wasthe daughter of Wouter Coenraetsz de Wolff and Maria de Grebber (1602–80), oneof Holland’s few female artists.[7]- Adriaan Waiboer, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 5 of 9Endnotes
1. 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 ofIreland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences) (New Haven, 2003), 34–35.
2. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 203–4,no. A-60; 214–17, nos. A-71, A-72, A-73; 230, no. A-88; 250, no. A-108; 255–58, nos. A-116, A-117;
282–83, no. B-14, all ill.
3. For Metsu’s two other paintings of a woman reading a letter, see Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu,
Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 257–58, no. A-117; 282–83, no. B-14, bothill.
4. Metsu certainly knew Ter Borch’s A Woman Writing a Letter, as he used it as his departure point for A
Woman Drawing of 1657–59.
5. This type of red was Metsu’s favorite color, and it appears in the majority of his works, often as a visual
accent against a light- or dark-brownish background (see, for example, GM-101).
6. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 58–59.
There are paintings, such as A Woman Sewing, with a Parrot (see ibid., 240, no. A-107, ill.), in whichIsabella de Wolff’s identity as a model cannot be confirmed with certainty.
7. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “Maria de Grebber,” in Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World, ed.
Pieter Biesboer and James A. Welu (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; Worcester, Worcester ArtMuseum) (New Haven, 1993), 228–29; see also Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A
Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 8–9.

Provenance(Possible sale, Christie’s, London, 23 February 1798, no. 59 [for £8.18]).
Private collection by 1935.
A. R. Ball, New York, by 1944.
Mrs. Charles E. Dunlap, New York (her sale, Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, New York, 4 December 1975, no.
303).
Possibly W. W. Blake (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 July 1983, no. 84 [to Dreesman].
Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann (1923–2000), Amsterdam, by 1983 (his sale, Christie’s, London, 11 April
2002, no. 555 [to Ambassador John William Middendorf II]).
© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 6 of 9Ambassador John William Middendorf II (b. 1924), by 2002 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London,
2004].[1]From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Provenance Notes

1. Rembrandt van Rijn’s Portrait of a Young Woman, now in The Leiden Collection, was also formerly inthe collection of Ambassador John William Middendorf II.

Exhibition History
Montreal, Art Association of Montreal, “Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings: Five Centuries of Dutch
Art,” 9 March–9 April 1944, no. 77 [lent by A. R. Ball].
Amsterdam, Gebr. Douwes Fine Art, “Selling Exhibition of Old Master Paintings of the 17th, 18th andEarly 19th Century,” 27 November–22 December 1995; 3–19 January 1996, no. 26 [lent by Dr. Anton
C. R. Dreesman].
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, “Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer,” 1October–31 December 2003; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Art and Science, 31 January–2 May
2004, no. 15 [lent by Ambassador John William Middendorf II].
San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, “Gabriel Metsu: The Love Letter,” 1 May–29 August 2004 [nonumber].
Maastricht, European Fine Arts Fair, March 2005 and March 2006 [exhibited by Johnny van Haeften,Ltd.].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Hals, and TheirContemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum of Art, 1February–26 April 2015, no. 21 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The LeidenCollection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
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 ofThe 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© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 7 of 9owner].
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].
Albany, Albany Institute of History & Art, “Delights of the Senses: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art andLife. Featuring Paintings from The Leiden Collection,” 14 September–31 December 2024, no. 9 [lentby the present owner].

References
Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings: Five Centuries of Dutch Art. Exh. cat.
Montreal, Art Association of Montreal. Montreal, 1944, 44, no. 77.
Robinson, Franklin, W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre Painting of theGolden Age, New York, 1974, 49, fig. 118.
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. 14 vols.
Paris, 1976. Revised edition by Jacques Busse. 14 vols. Paris, 1999, 9:537.
Gebr. Douwes Fine Art. Selling Exhibition of Old Master Paintings of the 17th, 18th and Early 19thCentury. Sales cat. Amsterdam, Gebr. Douwes Fine Art. Amsterdam, 1995–96, no. 29.
Kolks, Z. “Veilingverslag oude schilderijen (IV).” Kunst & antiekrevue 18, no. 10 (2002): 23, fig. 13.
Sutton, Peter C., ed. Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer. Exh. cat. Dublin,
National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Connecticut, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences. New Haven,
2003, 120–23, no. 15.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): Life and Work.” 4 vols. PhD diss. New York
University, 2007, 1: 195, 684–86, no. A-105, 4: 1154.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, 2012, 96, 230,no. A-88.
Weller, Dennis P. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Hals, and Their Contemporaries. Exh. cat. Raleigh, North
Carolina Museum of Art, Birmingham, Birmingham Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014, 126–29, no. 21.
Van Elk, Martine. Early Modern Women’s Writing: Domesticity, Privacy, and the Public Sphere inEngland and the Dutch Republic. London, 2017, 51, 53.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter.” In Rembrandt and His
Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 118, no. 49,184, no. 49.
Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Journal of National Museum of China 169, no. 8 (2017): frontispiece.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 128–29.
© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 8 of 9Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandtand Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 25; 33. Translated byDaria 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. “Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter.” In The Age ofRembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 126–27;
237, no. 30. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin StateMuseum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
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, 154, no. 74. [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. 2.
Nogrady, Elizabeth and Diane Shewchuk, eds. Delights of the Senses: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art andLife. Featuring Paintings from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Albany, Albany Institute of History &Art. Albany, 2024, 58–59, no. 9.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, vertically oriented, rectangular non-Baltic oak, has bevels on
all four sides.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled, and has vertically oriented hand toolmarks across thepanel width and machine toolmarks along the left edge. There are three red wax collection seals, three importstamps, a stencil and a collector’s label, but no panel maker’s mark.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a thin, light gray underlayer.[2] The
paint along the background has been applied in transparent glazes allowing the underlayer to show through,and the gray-blue wall color to the figure’s right is beaded up where it meets the figure’s wrist and forearm.
The paint along the figure has been applied in successive thin layers with low brushmarkings light over dark.
In raking light, the outer contours of the figure are slightly raised.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000
nanometers or in the X-radiograph.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2006 and remains in a goodstate of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. The characterization of wood is by Ian Tyers, independent consultant, Arcus Dendrochronology,Sheffield, England, who kindly examined the X-radiograph and offered his expert opinion via e-mail.
2. Visible in small chips along all four edges and along all four corners.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection