Woman Holding a Balance

In the pictureA woman in a white headscarf and a dark blue jacket trimmed with white fur stands at a table, holding a small balance in her right hand. Her eyes are lowered, and her other hand rests lightly on the edge of the table. On the table lie an open box, strings of pearls and gold coins, and at the front left dark blue cloth is heaped up. Light enters from a window at the upper left hung with an orange curtain and falls diagonally across the gray wall, and a mirror hangs on the left wall. On the wall behind the woman hangs a dark painting in a gold frame, a scene of the Last Judgment.

BackgroundThe Delft painter Vermeer painted it in the mid-1660s. He left only thirty-some paintings, and many of them, like this one, are interiors with a single woman by a window. It was once described as a woman weighing pearls or gold, but close examination confirmed that the pans of the balance are empty. Because the Last Judgment behind her is a scene of the weighing of souls, the picture is often interpreted as contrasting worldly wealth with temperance. It entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1942 as part of the Widener Collection.

Puzzle tipMost of the picture is dark, so the right order is to fix the bright areas first. The woman's white headscarf and white fur sleeves, the sunlit gray wall and the edge of the gold frame on the right are good to fit first. Next, join the tabletop and the blue jacket. The blue cloth at the lower left, the floor and the lower part of the skirt form a wide stretch of dark color and remain until last; use the bluish reflections on the folds of the cloth as clues. 100 pieces is recommended.