The Little Street

In the pictureOn the right of the picture stands a red brick house topped with a stepped gable, its ground-floor wall covered in white limewash. Inside the open door sits a woman in a white cap, sewing, and on the pavement in front of her two children crouch at play. At the end of the narrow passage between the two houses on the left, a woman in a red top and blue skirt bends over her work. The wall of the house on the left is covered with bluish vines, and above the roofs gray and white clouds spread wide. The window shutters are green and red, and a long wooden bench stands against the front wall of the house on the left.

BackgroundPainted around 1658, it is one of only two street scenes by Vermeer, who is famous for his interiors; the other is View of Delft. A signature can be seen at the bottom of the white wall of the house on the left. Which street it shows was long debated, and in 2015 a study based on Delft's old canal tax records identified it as two houses on the Vlamingstraat. One of them is said to have been home to Vermeer's aunt. The painting simply records an ordinary moment in the neighborhood, with nothing in particular happening.

Puzzle tipThe red of the brick fills the right half, so divide the house into stories using the white window frames, the leaded panes, and the green and red shutters as guides. The sky at upper left can be followed along the boundary between the blue and the gray clouds, and because the cobbled pavement at the bottom has a uniform texture, start with the row that meets the white wall above it. The small figures fall into place when fitted along with the white limewashed wall, and the dark arched doorway on the left is also a good marker. The recommended size is about 100 pieces.