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© 2020 The Leiden Collection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,2nded.

EditedbyArthurK.

WheelockJr.

NewYork,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-young-woman-seated-in-an-interior-reading-a-letter/ (archived May2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

Gabriel Metsu was a master at rendering the sense of expectation andComparative Figures

anticipation that occurs when one reads a letter from a loved one. Here, ayoung woman, sitting demurely near her sewing basket and with a sewing
cushion on her lap, looks down to read the letter that has arrived while she
was diligently engaged in her needlework. The scene is quiet and still, withthe only semblance of movement being the slight smile that crosses her face
as she reads her lover’s missive. Although not privy to the text, the viewer isa 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 of these works reflects the important role of letter writingin the Netherlands. The ability to compose eloquent messages was anindication of civility and education, even if the writer made use of the letter-Fig 1. Gerard ter Borch, A Woman
Writing a Letter, ca. 1655–66, oilon panel, 39 x 29.5 cm,
Mauritshuis, The Hague, 797

writing manuals that were widely available in the Dutch Republic.[1] The
subject allowed artists to create engaging images of men and women 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 writinglove letters from the late 1650s to the mid-1660s.[2] Young Woman Seated inan Interior, Reading a Letter is the earliest of the three representations of a
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
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female letter reader he made during this period. He executed it around
1658–61, just as he began shifting his attention from working maids toelegant women engaged in leisurely pastimes.[3] The young woman’s
clothes, earrings and silver ear picker (an ornamented tool to clean the earcanal) hanging on a chain attached to a blue velvet purse clearly associate
her with 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 in depicting the theme of amorous correspondence, but alsothat of Pieter de Hooch (1629–84), Frans van Mieris (1635–81), Johannes
Vermeer (1632–75), and Caspar Netscher (ca. 1639–84).

Fig 2. Gerard ter Borch, A Woman
with a Wine Glass Reading aLetter, ca. 1656–57, oil on canvas,
37.5 x 28.7 cm, Städel Museum,Frankfurt am Main, 1055

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] Ter Borch situated the women in these paintings seated close to
the picture plane and placed them against a dark background. Metsu freely
adapted these compositional features in making this painting, but in doing so
he created an image more tranquil and intimate than those created by TerBorch, partly by painting his scene in a smaller format and placing his figure
nearer the front of the picture plane. Whereas Ter Borch incorporated two to
three areas of color to enliven his scenes—the women’s clothes, the carpetson the tables, and the upholstery of a chair—Metsu limited his bright color—thered of the bodice—to the woman herself.[5]Ter Borch often used his half-sister Gesina (1631–90) as a model for hisgenre scenes and, in a similar fashion, Metsu frequently painted his ownwife, Isabella de Wolff, in domestic roles, as he did here. Though Metsu did
not portray her accurately in all of these scenes, her facial features are
generally recognizable even if her appearance varies from one work to thenext.[6] When Metsu painted this work, Isabella had been his wife only briefly:
the couple had married in Enkhuizen in May 1658. Isabella was the daughterof Wouter Coenraetsz de Wolff and Maria de Grebber (1602–80), one ofHolland’s few female artists.[7]- Adriaan Waiboer, 2017© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 4 of 8Endnotes

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 of Ireland; 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, GabrielMetsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 257–58, no. A-117;
282–83, no. B-14, both ill.
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 which Isabella de Wolff’s identity as a model cannot be confirmed withcertainty.
7. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “Maria de Grebber,” in Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and HerWorld, ed. Pieter Biesboer and James A. Welu (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum;Worcester, Worcester Art Museum) (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,© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 5 of 811 April 2002, no. 555 [to Ambassador John William Middendorf II]).
Ambassador John William Middendorf II (b. 1924), by 2002 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd.,London, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History
Montreal, Art Association of Montreal, “Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings: Five Centuries ofDutch 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 and Early 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 ofVermeer,” 1 October–31 December 2003; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Art andScience, 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
[no number].
Maastricht, European Fine Arts Fair, March 2005 and March 2006 [exhibited by Johnny vanHaeften, Ltd.].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Hals, and Their
Contemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum ofArt, 1 February–26 April 2015, no. 21 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 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 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
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 thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 6 of 82019 [lent by 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 the Golden Age, New York, 1974, 49, fig. 118.
Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs,dessinateurs et graveurs de 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
19th Century. 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 andSciences. 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.
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 YeagerCrasselt, 118, no. 49,184, no. 49. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museumof 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 from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 128–29.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age ofRembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 7 of 8

Lyubimova, 25; 33. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, ThePushkin 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 State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage
Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch GoldenAge. 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 inFrench and Arabic.]

Technical SummaryThe 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 the panel width and machine toolmarks along the left edge. There arethree red wax collection seals, three import stamps, 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 grayunderlayer.[2] The paint along the background has been applied in transparent glazes allowing theunderlayer 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 good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Thecharacterizationofwood

isbyIanTyers,independentconsultant,

Arcus

Dendrochronology, Sheffield, England, who kindly examined the X-radiograph and offered his© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
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expert opinion via e-mail.
2. Visible in small chips along all four edges and along all four corners.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection