Young Woman Seated at a Virginal
Johannes Vermeer(Delft 1632 – 1675 Delft)ca. 1670–72
oil on canvas
25.5 x 20.1 cm
JVe-100© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated at a Virginal
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How to cite
Liedtke, Walter A. and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. “Young Woman Seated at a Virginal” (2017). In The Leiden
Collection

Catalogue,

2nd

ed.

EditedbyArthurK.

Wheelock

Jr.

New

York,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/young-woman-seated-at-a-virginal/ (archived May 2020).
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 narrative
occurs.

This tenderly entrancing picture captures the quiet joy of a young woman in

Comparative Figures

harmony with her music. As she gently fingers the keyboard of her virginal,
she leans slightly forward in her chair, quietly and not about to move, whilelooking out with a sympathetic expression, as though desiring to share thedulcet sounds of her instrument with the viewer. In style and execution thissmall masterpiece is similar to other of Johannes Vermeer’s late depictionsof young women playing musical instruments, including Guitar Player, ca.
1670, Kenwood House, London (fig 1); A Lady Standing at a Virginal, ca.
1670–72, National Gallery, London (fig 2); and Young Woman Seated at a
Virginal, ca. 1670–72, also in the National Gallery (fig 3). As with these otherworks, it must date from the early 1670s.
In Vermeer’s oeuvre, music making always serves the purpose of courtship.
Much as with A Lady Standing at a Virginal, the viewer to whom the woman

Fig 1. Johannes Vermeer, Guitar
Player, ca. 1670, oil on canvas, 53
x 46.3 cm, Kenwood, English
Heritage as Trustees of the Iveagh
Bequestlooks out assumes the role of a potential suitor. The tightly wound curls, redribbons, and the strand of small pearls in her hair indicate that she is a young
lady of proper upbringing and fine sensibility. But it is the expression,
although abstracted as in some of Vermeer’s other late works, whichsuggests she is a real person with emotions and feelings. In this regard
Vermeer was indebted to Gerard ter Borch (1617–81)[1] and, like Ter Borch,to the women who shared his private world.
This painting has only recently been reintegrated into Vermeer’s oeuvre
after having been removed from the public’s eye for many years. Not only
Fig 2. Johannes Vermeer, A Lady
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the subject matter, but also the modeling of the satin skirt, the reflective frontof the virginal, the shape of the music stand, and the radiant white wall are all
executed with the subtleties characteristic of Vermeer’s late paintings.
Lawrence Gowing was particularly struck by the distinctive rendering of “theStanding at a Virginal, ca.
1670–72, oil on canvas, 51.8 x
45.2 cm,The National Gallery,
London, Bought, 1892
(NG1383), © National Gallery,
London / Art Resource, NY

hands, the instrument and the space and light around them.”[2]Technical examinations have established many similarities in the materials
and techniques found in this painting and in other of Vermeer’s late works.
The pale brown ground was applied in two layers, and is identical incomposition and application to the ground layers in the London paintings.
Natural ultramarine (lapis lazuli) serves in the final paint layers not only tocolor blue motifs (as in the back of the chair) but also to lend a coolluminosity to the background plane and to the highlights on the forearms.
Vermeer used a green pigment in the shadows on the face, as he did in the
London and Kenwood paintings. Finally, the orthogonal lines of the virginal
were evidently snapped onto the primed or underpainted canvas by using
chalked strings running to a pin stuck in the canvas at a point coincident withthe woman’s shoulder.[3]Fig 3. Johannes Vermeer, Young
Woman Seated at a Virginal, ca.
1670–72, oil on canvas, 51.5 x
45.6 cm,The National Gallery,
London, Salting Bequest, 1910
(NG2568), © National Gallery,
London / Art Resource, NY

Studies on canvas weaves, undertaken in 2011 by C. Richard Johnson ofCornell University and Don H. Johnson of Rice University, have determinedthat this work is painted on a canvas cut from the same bolt as
Vermeer’s Lacemaker in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, ca. 1669–70 (fig 4).
[4]This information suggests that Vermeer used this bolt for this later group ofpaintings. At his death in 1675 Vermeer left “ten painter’s canvases” among
the supplies in his studio.[5] These were most likely stretched and primed but
otherwise unpainted. Paintings from the same bolt of canvas, thus, could
have a range of dates depending on how quickly the artist worked and used
up his materials at hand, and, for stylistic reasons, it is likely that Young
Woman Seated at a Virginal dates a few years after Lacemaker.
Despite this painting’s many stylistic and thematic connections to Vermeer’slate works, the somewhat wooden appearance of the large yellow shawl

Fig 4. Johannes
Vermeer, Lacemaker, ca.
1669–70, oil on canvas, 23.9 x
20.5 cm, Musée du Louvre,
Paris, Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art
Archive at Art Resource, NY

covering the upper portion of the woman’s body is awkward both in its shapeand in its modeling. The sharp edges to the folds are quite different from
Vermeer’s more nuanced manner of painting, as seen, for example, in theshimmering quality of her white satin dress. It is largely because of theunsatisfactory character of this shawl that the attribution to the artist has
been contested in the past. X-radiographs, however, have shown thatbeneath this shawl is a fully realized garment, with an intricately designed
sleeve, that leads gracefully from the neck to the woman’s arms (fig 5). The© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman Seated at a Virginal
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skirt came up in gathered folds to the waist, and the broad swag of drapery
from the elbows to the back of the chair was not present originally. Pigment
analysis has also determined that this undergarment was executed with adifferent mixture of lead-tin yellow paint than that of the shawl. The
probability, thus, is that the shawl was a later addition, likely executed shortly
after Vermeer’s death. A similar situation occurs with Woman with a Flute in
the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., which also seems to havebeen reworked after Vermeer’s death.
Much of the magic of Vermeer’s paintings arises from the visual restraint of
his images, which gives them a timeless character despite the immediacy ofhis scenes. Here Vermeer has focused in on the woman and her instrument,

Fig 5. X-radiograph of Young
Woman Seated at a
Virginal, JVe-100

giving the viewer no hint of the character of the room in which she sits otherthan for the simple white wall behind her. All of our attention, thus, is directed
to her, and she responds in kind. This powerful human connection holds us
in place, and find ourselves drawn into her world and imagining the quiet
rhythms of the music she plays.[6]- Walter A. Lietdke, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 2017

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Endnotes

1. Vermeer and Ter Borch likely knew one another. See the biographies of Vermeer and Ter
Borch in this catalogue.
2. Lawrence Gowing, letter to Marlborough Fine Art, London, in 1959, quoted in Libby Sheldon
and Nicola Costaras, “Johannes Vermeer’s Young Woman Seated at a Virginal,” Burlington
Magazine 148 (2006): 90.
3. Conservator Jørgen Wadum reported 13 cases of a pinhole at the vanishing point incanvases by Vermeer, in his article “Vermeer in Perspective,” in Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr. Johannes Vermeer (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Galleryof Art) (New Haven, 1995), 67, 71. In later reports Wadum has cited 17 examples (personalcommunication to the Walter Liedtke, 6 July 2009).
4. Walter Liedtke, C. Richard Johnson Jr., and Don H. Johnson, “Canvas Matches in Vermeer:
A Case Study in the Computer Analysis of Fabric Supports,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 47(2012): 101–8.
5. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History (Princeton, 1989),
341, under doc. 364.
6. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., The Collection of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogues:
Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century (Washington, D.C., 1995), 387–93, ill.

ProvenancePossibly Pieter Claesz. van Ruijven (1624–74), Delft; possibly by inheritance to his son-inlaw, Jacob Dissius (his sale, Amsterdam, 16 May 1696, no. 37).
Possibly Wessel Ryers (his sale, Amsterdam, 21 September 1814, no. 93 [30 florins toWillem Gruyter]).
Alfred Beit (1853–1906), London, probably acquired in the 1890s; by inheritance to his
brother Otto Beit (1865–1930) by 1904; by inheritance to his son, Sir Alfred Lane Beit
(1903–94), Blessington, Ireland [Marlborough Fine Art, London, 1960, to Baron Frédéric
Rolin, Brussels].
Baron Frédéric Rolin, Brussels (d. 2001), acquired in 1960, by descent to his heirs until 2004
(sale, Sotheby’s, London, 7 July 2004, no. 8 [to Steve Wynn]).
Steve Wynn Collection, Las Vegas, 2004 [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.
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Exhibition History
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Winter Exhibition, “Catalogue of a Collection of Pictures,
Decorative Furniture and Other Works of Art,” 1907, 4, no. 13 [lent by Otto Beit].
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Vermeer and the Delft School,” 8 March–27 May
2001; London, National Gallery, 20 June–16 September 2001 [not in the catalogue; lent byBaron Frédéric Rolin].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals byJohannes Vermeer,” 11 August 2004–1 March 2005 [lent by Steve Wynn].
Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, “Vermeer and the Delft Style,” 2 August–14 December
2008 [lent by the present owner].
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 29 December
2008–30 November 2009 [lent by the present owner].
Norfolk, Virginia, Chrysler Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, June
2010–January 2011 [lent by the present owner].
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, “Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence,” 17 September
2011–15 January 2012, no. 28 [lent by the present owner].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, January–September
2012 [lent by the present owner].
Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, “Johannes Vermeer and the Golden Age of Dutch Art,”
October 2012–January 2013 [lent by present owner].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, January–June 2013 [lentby the present owner].
London, National Gallery, “Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure,” 25 June–8
September 2013 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Vermeer’s Young Woman Seated at a Virginal,”
26 October 2013–21 September 2014 [lent by the present owner].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries,” 26 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Birmingham Museumof Art, 4 February 2015–26 April 2015, no. 44 [lent by the present owner].
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, “Vermeer Suite: Music in 17th-Century Dutch Painting,” 17January–21 August 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre,” 20 February-22
May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
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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 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 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
2019 [lent by the present owner].

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Page 8 of 12Hale, Philip Leslie. Jan Vermeer of Delft. Boston, 1913, 145, 275.
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14, no. 48.
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144, no. 6, pl. 6.
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Gaskell and Michiel Jonker, 27, 29, fig. 14, 33, n. 58 Washington, D.C., 1998.
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Vermeer and the Delft School.

Exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan

Museum of New York; London, National Gallery. New York, 2001, 403, 406, n. 11, 581, n. 46.
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Virginal.” The Burlington Magazine 148 (February 2006): 89–97.
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Binstock, Benjamin. Vermeer’s Family Secrets: Genius, Discovery, and the Unknown
Apprentice. New York, 2009, 281–82, no. 128, as by Maria Vermeer.
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and Silence. Edited by Marjorie E. Wieseman, Wayne Franits, and H. Perry Chapman, 208–9,
no. 28. Exh. cat. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. New Haven, 2011.
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Sheldon, Libby. “The newest Vermeer: How technical research convinced the doubting
scholars.” The Picture Restorer 41 (Autumn 2012): 14–18.
Johnson, C. Richard Jr., Don H. Johnson, and Walter Lietdke. “Canvas Matches in Vermeer:
A Case Study in the Computer Analysis of Fabric Supports.” The Metropolitan Museum
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Vermeer: Il secolo d’oro dell’arte olandese. Edited by Sandrina Bandera, Walter Liedtke, andArthur K. Wheelock Jr., 220–24, no. 51. Exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale. Rome,
2012.
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National Gallery. New Haven, 2013, 70, cat. no. 25.
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Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries. Edited by Dennis P. Weller, 224–27, no. 44. Exh.
cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum of Art.
Raleigh, 2014.
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End?” In Holland’s Golden Age in America: Collecting the Art of Rembrandt, Vermeer andHals. Edited by Esmée Quodbach, 185–86, no. 104. New York, 2014.
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don au Louvre.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 17. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre. Paris. 2017.
Weiseman, Marjorie E. “Invitation à la musique.” In Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture degenre. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 235, 238–40,
cat. no. 18. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland;
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. Paris, 2017.
Weiseman, Marjorie E. “Inventing Duets.” In Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting:
Inspiration and Rivalry. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr., 135, 138–39, 252, cat. 15.4. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Dublin, National Gallery of
Ireland; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. New Haven and London, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in theGolden Age.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Editedby Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 10–1; 15, fig. 9. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National
Museum of China. Beijing, 2017. A slightly revised version of this essay appears in
Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden
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Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 158–59; 189, no.
69. Translated by Li Ying. Beijing, 2017.
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Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric, has been lined.[1] The weave
has slightly thicker threads every centimeter in the vertical and horizontal directions. The verticalthreads run perfectly vertically while the horizontal threads slope downward when viewed left toright. All four tacking margins have been removed and there is slight cusping along all four edges.
There is a green wax collection seal and numerical inscriptions along the stretcher and two red
import stamps along the lining.
In 2010, the Thread Count Automation Project (TCAP) determined weave matches link the
supports of JVe-100, dated ca. 1670, and the Louvre’s Lacemaker, dated ca. 1669–70.[2] Johnson
and Johnson’s report states: “Presuming Vermeer purchased canvas in sizes larger than his
paintings, a weave match is strong evidence that both, now separate, canvases were once joined
and both in Vermeer’s possession. This argues for the authenticity of one half of a matching pairto carry over to the other half of the pair.” This confirms L. Sheldon and N. Costaras’s findings
published in The Burlington Magazine (February 2006) that “a painting of a similar size to ‘AYoung Woman Seated at a Virginal,’ the ‘Lacemaker,’ is on a canvas made of precisely thesame type of rather coarse thread and has exactly the same thread count. . . . So similar is theappearance of the two canvases that they could well be from the same bolt.”[3]A light gray ground has been applied in at least two layers followed by a thin red-brown
imprimatura glaze.[4] The paint has been applied dark to light, although dark glazes have been
applied over the lighter brown paint along the drapery folds of the yellow shawl to enhance theillusion of depth. The composition’s perspective lines converge in the yellow shawl draped overthe figure’s shoulder. A previously filled and inpainted point in the shawl, below and slightly to theleft of the two white pearls along the figure’s neck, may be the vanishing point.[5]No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The
images indicate the yellow shawl was applied after the vertical folds of the skirt were painted.
Dark pentimenti through the figure’s hands and wrists indicate the figure was painted after thevirginal.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored prior to acquisition in 2004 and remains in a good state ofpreservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Narrow remnants of primed canvas remain along all but the left edge.
2. TCAP codirectors Dr. C. Richard Johnson Jr. of Cornell University and Dr. Don H. Johnson of
Rice University.
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Young Woman Seated at a Virginal
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3. The Burlington Magazine 148 (February 2006): 89–97.
4. From page one of the painting analysis report by C. Hassall and L. Sheldon, UCL Painting
Analysis Ltd, May 1997 (on file at the Leiden Collection).
5. Ca. 1 cm below and slightly to the left of the two white pearls along the figure’s neck.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection