Young Woman Seated in an Interior,Reading a Letterca. 1658–61

Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)

25.8 x 21 cm

oil on panel
GM-103Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 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." In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 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 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, theviewer 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 theseventeenth century. The appeal of these works reflects the important roleof letter writing in the Netherlands. The ability to compose eloquentFig 1. Gerard ter Borch, A
Woman Writing a Letter, ca.
1655–66, oil on panel, 39 x 29.5cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, 797

messages was an indication of civility and education, even if the writer
made use of the letter-writing manuals that were widely available in theDutch Republic.[1] The subject allowed artists to create engaging imagesof 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
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 he made during this period. He
executed it around 1658–61, just as he began shifting his attention fromworking maids to elegant women engaged in leisurely pastimes.[3] The
young woman’s clothes, earrings and silver ear picker (an ornamented toolto clean the ear canal) hanging on a chain attached to a blue velvet purse

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

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) madein the mid-1650s. Indeed, Ter Borch may be credited with inspiring not
only Metsu’s interest in 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 fromca. 1655–56 (fig 1) and A Woman with a Wine Glass Reading a Letter© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 4 of 8(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 andintimate than those created by Ter Borch, partly by painting his scene in asmaller format and placing his figure nearer the front of the picture plane.
Whereas Ter Borch incorporated two to three areas of color to enliven hisscenes—the women’s clothes, the carpets on the tables, and theupholstery of a chair—Metsu limited his bright color—the red of thebodice—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 thedaughter of Wouter Coenraetsz de Wolff and Maria de Grebber(1602–80), one of Holland’s few female artists.[7]-Adriaan Waiboer© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 5 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) (NewHaven, 2003), 34–35.
2. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 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 and London, 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 andLondon, 2012), 58–59. There are paintings, such as A Woman Sewing, with a Parrot (seeibid., 240, no. A-107, ill.), in which Isabella de Wolff’s identity as a model cannot beconfirmed with certainty.
7. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “Maria de Grebber,” in Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and HerWorld, ed. James A. Welu and Pieter Biesboer (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum;Worcester, Mass., Worcester Art Museum) (Zwolle and Worchester, 1993), 228–29; seealso Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (NewHaven and London, 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, 4December 1975, no. 303).
Possibly W. W. Blake (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 July 1983, no. 84 [to Dreesman].
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
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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]).
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].

References
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, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
Page 7 of 8

graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains specialistesfrançais et étrangers. 10 vols. Paris, 1976. Revised ed. by Jacques Busse, Paris, 1999,
9:537.
Selling Exhibition of Old Master Paintings of the 17th, 18th and Early 19th Century . Exh.
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, ed. Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer . Exh. cat.
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., 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. Ph.D. 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 Havenand London, 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.

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 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
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 insuccessive thin layers with low brushmarkings light over dark. In raking light, the outer contoursof 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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter
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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.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection