Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
One hand opens the window, the other holds a water pitcher. Morning light from the window settles quietly on a white headcloth and a blue dress. Full commentary ↓
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Young Woman with a Water Pitcher is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer (ca. 1662) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 45.7 × 40.6 cm.
In the pictureA woman in a white headcloth opens a window with one hand and holds a gold water pitcher on the table with the other. She wears a blue dress and a yellow bodice; on the table are a rug patterned in red and blue and a jewelry box. A map hangs on the wall. Light from the window at the left shines through the headcloth and casts soft shadows on the wall.
BackgroundIt was painted in Delft in the early 1660s. Vermeer left only thirty-some paintings in his lifetime, and five of them are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This painting is said to be the first Vermeer to come to America. It is not a scene where anything happens, just the ordinary moment of opening the window in the morning to wash. No painter had ever painted the ordinary this quietly.
Puzzle tipIn this puzzle, the wide white wall makes it hard. Complete the figure (blue, yellow, white headcloth) and the table (red rug, gold pitcher) first, and place the map pieces by their lettering and lines. The wall is bright near the window and grows darker toward the right, so use brightness to find a piece's horizontal position.
- Artist
- Dutch, Delft 1632–1675 Delft
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 45.7 x 40.6 cm
- Credit line
- Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
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Two Vermeers, two Rembrandts, one Bruegel. From a morning where nothing happens to the face of a bankrupt painter, why the Low Countries masters turn into a battle with dark pieces when you solve them as puzzles.
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