The essential subject of this serene picture is an ideal woman in an ideal home. Her head and elegant costume are covered by linen scarves, which with the silver-gilt basin and pitcher and the open window suggest ablutions at the beginning of the day. A string of pearls emerges from the jewelry box. Balanced shapes and colors (mainly the primaries) enhance the harmonious mood. Works by Vermeer were newly known and coveted by American collectors of the Gilded Age: this canvas was the first of thirteen to enter the United States between 1887 and 1919.

This canvas of about 1662, one of Vermeer's most beautiful works, was the first painting by Vermeer to enter an American public collection. The MMA canvas is one of a small group of canvases dating from about 1662–65 in which isolated women appear as mistresses of their private domains. Among other pictures of this type may be included the Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), Woman with a Pearl Necklace (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), Woman with a Balance, and perhaps A Lady Writing (both National Gallery of Art, Washington). The Amsterdam painting shares particular compositional similarities with the MMA work.

Technical analysis reveals that a larger map than the one now visible originally extended to the left behind the woman, so that her head was framed within the wall hanging's lower left corner. In addition, the back of a chair set on an angle was placed in the left foreground and partly overlapped the window. The chair, the use of an open window as a spatial device, and the bright, local coloring are consistent with Vermeer's style in works dating from about 1658/59–62.

[2010; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Robert Vernon, London (1801?–d. 1849; his estate sale, Christie's, London, April 21, 1877, no. 97, as "Lady at Table—Ewer and Dish," by Metsu, for £404.5.0 to Colnaghi); Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt, Powerscourt, near Enniskerry, co. Wicklow, Ireland (1878–?1887); [Agnew, London]; [Bourgeois Frères, Paris]; [Charles Pillet, Paris, 1887; sold to Marquand for $800]; Henry G. Marquand, New York (1887–89)

London. British Institution. June 1838, no. 29 (as "A Female at a window," by Metsu, lent by R. Vernon, Esq.).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1878, no. 267 (as "Lady at a Casement," by Jan van der Meer, lent by Viscount Powerscourt).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Exhibition of 1888–89," 1888–89, no. 29 (as "Young Woman opening a Casement").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Temporary Exhibition," April 1906, no. 40 (as "Young Woman at a Window").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Hudson-Fulton Celebration," September–November, 1909, no. 137 (as "Girl with Water-Jug").

Rotterdam. Museum Boymans. "Vermeer, Oorsprong en Invloed Fabritius, De Hooch, De Witte," July 9–October 9, 1935, no. 85.

Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum. "Vermeer Tentoonstelling," October 21–November 3, 1935, no. 167.

The Hague. Mauritshuis. "In Het Licht van Vermeer," June 25–September 5, 1966, no. IV.

Paris. Orangerie des Tuileries. "Dans la lumière de Vermeer," September 24–November 28, 1966, no. V.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 45).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, no. 283.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Johannes Vermeer," November 12, 1995–February 11, 1996, no. 11.

The Hague. Mauritshuis. "Johannes Vermeer," March 1–June 2, 1996, no. 11.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Vermeer and the Delft School," March 8–May 27, 2001, no. 71.

London. National Gallery. "Vermeer and the Delft School," June 20–September 16, 2001, no. 71.

Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado. "Vermeer y el interior holandés," February 19–May 18, 2003, no. 34.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Vermeer's Masterpiece 'The Milkmaid'," September 9–November 29, 2009, no. 7.

H. W. "Van der Meer." Athenæum no. 2585 (May 12, 1877), p. 616, attributes it to Vermeer.

Henry Havard. Van der Meer de Delft. Paris, 1888, p. 39, no. 56, ill. p. 31 (engraving), as "L'aiguière".

A. C. Loffelt. "Zwervers tot rust gekomen." De Nederlandsche Spectator (1889), p. 62 [see Ref. Wheelock and Broos 1995].

Pierre Petroz. "L'école hollandaise." L'art 48, part 1 (1890), ill. p. 176.

Corn[elis]. Hofstede de Groot. "Johannes Vermeer." Die Graphischen Künste 18 (1895), p. 24.

W[illiam]. Roberts. Memorials of Christie's: A Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1896. London, 1897, vol. 1, p. 269.

C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 1, London, 1907, p. 272, no. 62, p. 590, no. 19, catalogues it on p. 272 as "A Lady Opening a Window," by Metsu, bought by Colnaghi at the Vernon sale of 1877 for £404.5, and on p. 590 as "A Young Woman with a Water-Jug (or, A Young Woman Opening a Casement)".

Gustave Vanzype. Vermeer de Delft. Brussels, 1908, pp. 40, 98, ill. opp. p. 102.

Royal Cortissoz. "Old Dutch Masters." Tribune (September 19, 1909) [reprinted in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (October 1909), p. 166].

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. Jan Vermeer of Delft and Carel Fabritius. Amsterdam, 1909, pp. 25–29, pl. 11.

Byron P. Stephenson. "Great Dutch Artists." Evening Post (September 20, 1909) [reprinted in Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (October 1909), p. 172, ill. p. 168].

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: Catalogue of an Exhibition Held in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1909, vol. 1, p. 138, no. 137, ill. opp. p. 138.

Joseph Breck. "L'art hollandais à l'exposition Hudson-Fulton à New York." L'art flamand & hollandais 13, no. 2 (1910), p. 57, ill. p. 55 [published in Dutch in Onze Kunst 17 (February 1910), p. 41, ill. p. 42].

Kenyon Cox. "Dutch Pictures in The Hudson-Fulton Exhibition—II." Burlington Magazine 16 (January 1910), p. 246.

[Max J.] Friedländer. "Die Ausstellung holländischer Bilder im Metropolitan Museum zu New York 1909." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 33 (1910), p. 98.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "Die Ausstellung holländischer Gemälde in New York." Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 3, no.1 (1910), p. 11.

E[mil]. Waldmann. "Die Ausstellung Holländischer Gemälde des 17. Jahrhunderts in New York." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 21, no. 4 (1910), p. 84, ill. p. 85.

Alfred von Wurzbach. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. 2, Vienna, 1910, p. 776.

William Bode. "More Spurious Pictures Abroad Than in America." New York Times (December 31, 1911), p. SM4.

Eduard Plietzsch. Vermeer van Delft. Leipzig, 1911, pp. 50–51, 118, no. 27, pl. 12.

Georges Dreyfous. L'oeuvre de Jan Vermeer de Delft dit Van Der Meer de Delft (1632–1675). Paris, 1912, pp. 16, 28.

Philip L. Hale. Jan Vermeer of Delft. Boston, 1913, pp. 99–101, 132, 136, 138, 163, 178, 180–81, 183, 187–88, 244, 248–50, 368, 373, ill. (color, frontispiece).

Wilhelm von Bode. Die Meister der holländischen und vlämischen Malerschulen. Leipzig, 1917, p. 76, ill. p. 75.

A[lbert]. E[ugene]. Gallatin. "Vermeer of Delft." American Magazine of Art 8 (August 1917), pp. 386, 390.

P. Johansen. "Jan Vermeer de Delft." Oud-Holland 38 (1920), pp. 196, 198, dates it about 1660–65.

E. V. Lucas. Vermeer of Delft. London, [1922?], pp. 35, 37, ill. opp. p. 44.

Hermann Nasse. "Jan Vermeer von Delft." Die Kunst für Alle 38 (October 1922), p. 6, ill. p. 10.

Wilhelm Hausenstein. Vermeer van Delft. Munich, 1924, p. 24, pl. 16.

David Lloyd. "The Vermeers in America." International Studio 82 (November 1925), pp. 123–24, ill. p. 125.

Jean Chantavoine. Ver Meer De Delft. Paris, 1926, pp. 36, 52, 59–60, 76, 83, 94, 99–101, ill. p. 25, places it with a group of paintings he dates between 1654 and 1660.

Seymour de Ricci. "Le quarante-et-unième Vermeer." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 16 (December 1927), p. 309.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "Zum 300. Geburtstag Jan Vermeers, Oktober 1932: Vermeer und die Meister der holländischen Genremalerei." Pantheon 10 (October 1932), p. 322, dates it about 1657.

Arsène Alexandre. "Nouveaux aperçus sur Vermeer." L'art et les artistes, n.s., 25 (February 1933), p. 166.

A. Heppner. "Vermeer—seine künstlerische Herkunft und Ausstrahlung." Pantheon 8 (August 1935), p. 262, ill. opp. p. 287 (color).

André de Hevesy. "L'Exposition Vermeer de Rotterdam." Bulletin de l'art [supplement of Revue de l'art] 68 (November 1935), p. 366, ill. p. 365.

George Isarlov. "Vermeer à l'Exposition de Rotterdam." La Renaissance 18 (October 1935), p. 102.

Hans Tietze. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935, p. 337, pl. 185 [English ed., "Masterpieces of European Painting in America," New York, 1939, pp. 321–22, pl. 185], dates it about 1665.

Philip L. Hale. Vermeer. Boston, 1937, pp. 64, 73, 81, 84, 107–11, 120, 190, colorpl. 1.

Eduard Plietzsch. Vermeer van Delft. Munich, 1939, pp. 18, 21–22, 59, fig. 1.

A. B. de Vries. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Amsterdam, 1939, pp. 40, 81–82, no. 11, fig. 37, dates it about 1658.

Eduard Trautscholdt in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 34, Leipzig, 1940, p. 268.

Margaret Breuning. "Metropolitan Re-Installs Its Treasures in Attractive Settings." Art Digest 18 (June 1, 1944), p. 26.

Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 2, p. 625, no. 1663, ill. (cropped).

Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Thoré's Sphinx." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7 (November 1948), pp. 76, 78, ill. p. 75 and on cover (color detail).

A. B. de Vries. Jan Vermeer van Delft. London, 1948, pp. 36–37, 84, pl. 10, dates it about 1658–60.

P. T. A. Swillens. Johannes Vermeer, Painter of Delft, 1632–1675. Utrecht, 1950, pp. 56, 72, 83, 85, 87–88, 118, 144, no. 16, pl. 16, as possibly acquired by Lord Powerscourt's grandfather, Lord Castlereagh.

Lawrence Gowing. Vermeer. London, 1952, pp. 130–31, no. XV, pls. 38–39 (overall and detail), places it in the same period as "Young Woman with a Wineglass" (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick).

André Malraux. Vermeer de Delft. Paris, 1952, p. 74, no. XVII, ill. p. 75 (color).

Vitale Bloch. Tutta la pittura di Vermeer di Delft. Milan, 1954, pp. 21, 32–33, pls. 35–37 (overall and details) [English ed., New York, 1963, pp. 23, 32–33, pls. 35–37 (overall and details)], dates it about 1660.

Albert TenEyck Gardner. "Metropolitan People and Pictures." Art News 52 (January 1954), p. 71, ill. p. 33 (color).

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 3, ill. on cover (color detail).

Michal Walicki. Vermeer. Warsaw, 1956, p. 22, pl. 13.

A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Gifts that Made the Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (November 1957), p. 100, ill. p. 87.

Ludwig Goldscheider. Jan Vermeer: The Paintings. London, 1958, pp. 5, 136–37, no. 16, colorpl. 43, dates it about 1663.

Lawrence Gowing. Johannes Vermeer. London, 1961, pp. 22, 31, no. 59, colorpl. 59.

A. Westers. "Een lampetkan van Delfts aardewerk." Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 12, no. 3 (1961), p. 95.

Jakob Rosenberg and Seymour Slive in Dutch Art and Architecture: 1600 to 1800. Baltimore, 1966, p. 121.

Piero Bianconi in L'opera completa di Vermeer. Milan, 1967, p. 90, no. 13, ill. p. 90 and colorpl. XXXIII [English ed., 1970].

Horst Gerson in Encyclopedia of World Art. 14, New York, 1967, col. 742, dates it before 1660.

Hans Koningsberger. The World of Vermeer, 1632–1675. New York, 1967, pp. 16–17, 26–27, 147–48, ill. (color, overall and detail).

Introduction by Kenneth Clark in Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 261, no. 283, ill. pp. 261 and 56 (color).

Jane Norman. "How to Look at Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28 (January 1970), p. 199, ill.

Calvin Tomkins. Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, pp. 74, 172 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].

Jakob Rosenberg and Seymour Slive in Dutch Art and Architecture: 1600 to 1800. rev. ed. Harmondsworth, England, 1972, pp. 200–203, fig. 148.

Letters of Roger Fry. New York, 1972, vol. 1, p. 255 n. 1 to letter no. 177 (March 2, 1906).

Julián Gállego and Frédéric Mégret. "Le Siècle d'or en Hollande." La grande histoire de la peinture. 10, [Geneva], 1973, pp. 49, 58.

[Jean Mistler]. Vermeer. [Paris], [1973], unpaginated, ill. (color), dates it about 1662.

Carl Nordenfalk. "Outdoors—Indoors: A 2000-Year-Old Space Problem in Western Art." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 117 (August 1973), p. 247, fig. 21.

Hubert von Sonnenburg. "Technical Comments." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 31 (Summer 1973), unpaginated, figs. 80 (color detail), 81 (detail, before restoration), 91 (x-ray detail), ill. front cover (color detail).

John Walsh Jr. "Vermeer." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 31 (Summer 1973), unpaginated, ill. front cover and fig. 7 (color, overall and detail), dates it early 1660s.

Ernst Günther Grimme. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Cologne, 1974, pp. 54, 56, 105, no. 18, ill. and frontispiece (color), dates it about 1662–63.

Albert Blankert, Rob Ruurs, and Willem L. van de Watering. Johannes Vermeer van Delft, 1632–1675. Utrecht, 1975, pp. 59–60, 62, 109, 146–47, 159, no. 12, colorpl. 12 [English ed., "Vermeer of Delft," Oxford, 1978, pp. 62, 73, 159–60, no. 12, colorpl. 12].

James A. Welu. "Vermeer: His Cartographic Sources." Art Bulletin 57 (December 1975), pp. 534–35, fig. 5 [expanded in Ref. Welu 1977], dates it about 1662 and identifies the wall map as the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, published by Hugo Allart.

Christopher Wright. Vermeer. London, 1976, pp. 11, 39, 79, 82–83, colorpl. III and pl. 13.

James A. Welu. "Vermeer and Cartography." PhD diss., Boston University, 1977, vol. 1, pp. 43–46, no. 2; vol. 2, fig. 56.

R. H. Fuchs. Dutch Painting. New York, 1978, p. 59, fig. 40 (color).

Anneliese Mayer-Meintschel. "Die Briefleserin von Jan Vermeer van Delft—zum Inhalt und zur Geschichte des Bildes." Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden 11 (1978/79), p. 98 n. 15.

Jed Perl. "Johannes Vermeer's 'Young Woman with a Water Jug'." Arts Magazine 53 (January 1979), pp. 118–21, ill.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 13, 344–45, fig. 1 (color).

Otto Naumann. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 1981, vol. 1, p. 68.

Leonard J. Slatkes. Vermeer and His Contemporaries. New York, 1981, p. 50, ill. p. 51 (color), dates it about 1662.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Jan Vermeer. New York, 1981, pp. 44, 48, 114, 116, colorpls. 26–27 (overall and detail), dates it about 1664–65.

John Pope-Hennessy. "Roger Fry and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on his Eightieth Birthday. London, 1984, p. 231.

Martin Pops. Vermeer: Consciousness and the Chamber of Being. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1984, pp. 8, 11, 15, 18, 26, 29, 41, 46, 53, 55, 89, 95, figs. 5–7 (overall and diagrams).

Peter C. Sutton in Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1984, p. LV, fig. 100.

Gilles Aillaud, Albert Blankert, and John Michael Montias. Vermeer. Paris, 1986, pp. 47, 50, 108–9, 112, 180–81, no. 12, fig. 38 (detail), colorpl. XI [English ed., 1988, pp. 47, 50, 108–9, 112, 156, 179, no. 12, fig. 38, colorpl. 11].

Bärbel Hedinger. Karten in Bildern: Zur Ikonographie der Wandkarte in holländischen Interieurgemälden des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. Hildesheim, 1986, pp. 94–95, 98–99, 102–3, fig. 95 and ill. on cover.

Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, p. 189, fig. 270.

Bärbel Hedinger. "Karten in Bildern. Zur politischen Ikonographie der Wandkarte bei Willem Buytewech und Jan Vermeer." Holländische Genremalerei im 17. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1987, p. 159, fig. 11 [same text published in Die Kunst (January 1987)].

Arthur K. Wheelock. "Pentimenti in Vermeer's Paintings: Changes in Style and Meaning." Holländische Genremalerei im 17. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1987, pp. 385, 390–91, 412 n. 15, figs. 1–2 (overall and reflectogram details).

John Michael Montias. Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History. Princeton, 1989, pp. 190, 266, fig. 42.

Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, pp. 17, 36, 40, fig. 1.

M. Elizabeth Boone. "Gilded Age Values and a Golden Age Painter: American Perceptions of Jan Vermeer." Rutgers Art Review 12–13 (1991–92), pp. 52, 68, fig. 2.

John Nash. Vermeer. London, 1991, pp. 26, 28, 31, 94, 96–98, ill. (color).

Walter Liedtke. "Vermeer sin egen läromästare." Rembrandt och hans Tid: Människan i Centrum. Exh. cat., Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, 1992, pp. 92, 102–3, fig. 9 [reprinted in Wayne E. Franits, ed., "The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer," Cambridge, 2001, pp. 30, 39, pl. 18].

Daniel Arasse. L'Ambition de Vermeer. Paris, 1993, pp. 129, 148–49, 188 n. 17, fig. 29 [English ed., "Vermeer, Faith in Painting," Princeton, 1994, pp. 50, 64, 113 n. 17, fig. 29].

Robin Hamlyn. "Robert Vernon's Gift to the Nation." Apollo, n.s., 137 (March 1993), p. 193, ill. on cover (color) and table of contents.

Edward Snow. A Study of Vermeer. rev., enl. ed. Berkeley, 1994, pp. xi, 61, 104, 116, 139, 161, 164, 168 n. 5, p. 183 n. 16, pp. 212–13 nn. 11, 22, colorpl. 62.

Albert Blankert in Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1995, p. 40.

Ben Broos in Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1995, p. 61.

Seymour Slive. Dutch Painting 1600–1800. New Haven, 1995, pp. 145, 148, fig. 188.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. in Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1995, p. 25, fig. 11 (color detail).

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer & the Art of Painting. New Haven, 1995, pp. 104–11, figs. 75 (color), 76 (infrared reflectograms), 77, 78, 79 (color details), A19.

Arthur K. Wheelock. "The Story of Two Vermeer Forgeries." Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive. Cambridge, Mass., 1995, p. 273.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Ben Broos in Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1995, pp. 140, 146–51, 166, no. 11, ill. (color; overall and detail), fig. 2 (infrared reflectogram), and back cover of dust jacket (color).

Wayne Franits in The Dictionary of Art. 32, New York, 1996, pp. 263, 265, fig. 2.

Erik Larsen. Jan Vermeer: Catalogo completo. Florence, 1996, pp. 18, 33, 98–99, no. 9, ill. pp. 58–60 (color, overall and details).

Mariët Westermann. A Worldly Art: The Dutch Republic 1585–1718. New York, 1996, pp. 39, 83, fig. 21 (color).

Kees Zandvliet in The Scholarly World of Vermeer. Exh. cat.Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1996, p. 75, ill. opp. p. 75 (detail).

Svetlana Alpers. "Picturing Dutch Culture." Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art: Realism Reconsidered. Cambridge, 1997, p. 66, fig. 41, ill. on cover (color).

Walter Liedtke. "Style in Dutch Art." Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art: Realism Reconsidered. Cambridge, 1997, pp. 126–27, ill. on cover (color).

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works. New York, 1997, p. 38, colorpl. 17.

Nicola Costaras. "A Study of the Materials and Tecniques of Johannes Vermeer." Vermeer Studies. Washington, 1998, pp. 150, 155–57, 165, 167.

Irene Netta. "The Phenomenon of Time in the Art of Vermeer." Vermeer Studies. Washington, 1998, p. 262.

Jørgen Wadum. "Contours of Vermeer." Vermeer Studies. Washington, 1998, pp. 205, 209.

Marieke de Winkel. "The Interpretation of Dress in Vermeer's Paintings." Vermeer Studies. Washington, 1998, p. 329.

Jean Strouse. Morgan: American Financier. New York, 1999, pp. 563, 611.

H. Perry Chapman. "Women in Vermeer's Home: Mimesis and Ideation." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 51 (2000), pp. 238, 251–52, 254–55, 257, 263–65, 267, fig. 13.

Ivan Gaskell. Vermeer's Wager: Speculations on Art History, Theory and Art Museums. London, 2000, p. 177.

Walter Liedtke. A View of Delft: Vermeer and his Contemporaries. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2000, pp. 18, 132, 191, 202, 207, 213, 217, 220, 226–28, 233, 238, 242, 289 n. 64, colorpl. XXVI and fig. 282, affirms a date of about 1661–62.

Walter A. Liedtke in The Oxford History of Western Art. New York, 2000, p. 245, ill. (color).

Anthony Bailey. Vermeer: A View of Delft. New York, 2001, pp. 131, 133, ill. p. 145.

Wayne E. Franits in The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer. Cambridge, 2001, p. 21, pl. 18.

Christiane Hertel. "Seven Vermeers." The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer. Cambridge, 2001, p. 153.

Philip Leider. "Vermeer & Hopper." Art in America 89 (March 2001), p. 100, ill. p. 99 (color).

Walter Liedtke et al. Vermeer and the Delft School. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2001, pp. 112, 117, 156, 158, 161–62, 164–65, 362, 365, 379–81, 383, no. 71, ill. (color).

Axel Rüger. Vermeer and Painting in Delft. London, 2001, pp. 59–60, fig. 50 (color).

Philip Steadman. Vermeer's Camera. Oxford, 2001, pp. 133, 168–69, 193–94 n. 8, fig. 28 (diagram of window).

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Marguerite Glass. "The Appreciation of Vermeer in Twentieth-Century America." The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer. Cambridge, 2001, pp. 167–68, 216 n. 21.

Bryan Jay Wolf. Vermeer and the Invention of Seeing. Chicago, 2001, p. 71, fig. 28 (detail).

Robert D. Huerta. Giants of Delft: Johannes Vermeer and the Natural Philosophers . . . Lewisburg, Pa., 2003, pp. 47, 50, 66, 90, 92, 95, 99, 139 n. 62, ill. p. 70.

Alejandro Vergara. Vermeer y el interior holandés. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2003, pp. 170, 172, 174, 253–54, no. 34, ill. p. 171 (color) and on cover (color detail).

Mariët Westermann in Vermeer y el interior holandés. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2003, pp. 82, 85, 87, 228, 230–31.

Wayne Franits. Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution. New Haven, 2004, pp. 170, 172, 235, 287 n. 75, p. 288 n. 85, fig. 156 (color) and ill. p. 258 (color detail).

Everhard Korthals Altes in Senses and Sins: Dutch Painters of Daily Life in the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat., Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany, 2004, p. 248, under no. 68, calls the composition closely related to "Woman With a Lute" (MMA 25.110.24).

Robert D. Huerta. Vermeer and Plato: Painting the Ideal. Lewisburg, Pa., 2005, pp. 54, 89, 94–95, 98, 110, 131 n. 35.

Epco Runia and Peter van der Ploeg. Vermeer in the Mauritshuis. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2005, p. 12, no. 3, ill. (color).

Pierre Rosenberg. Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections. Milan, 2006, ill. p. 118.

Pierre Le Coz and Pierre-Éric Laroche. Vermeer ou l'action de voir. Brussels, 2007, pp. 96–97.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. ix–x, 39 n. 8, p. 64 n. 9, p. 366; vol. 2, pp. 866, 870, 877–84, no. 203, colorpl. 203 and frontispiece (color).

Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 3, 11–12, 28, 68, 70–71, figs. 8 (color), 82 (color, MMA Vermeer gallery photograph) and frontispiece (color detail).

Walter Liedtke. Vermeer: The Complete Paintings. Antwerp, 2008, pp. 20, 22, 36, 43, 45, 47–48, 71–72, 87–88, 98–102, 108, 113, 115, 118, 123, 127, 138, 195, no. 13, ill. (color, overall and detail) and fig. 38 (color detail).

Peter C. Sutton. Vermeer and the Delft Style. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. [Tokyo], 2008, pp. 70–71, fig. 16 (color).

Walter Liedtke. "The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2009, pp. 5–7, 21, 31–32, 34, no. 7, colorpl. 7.

Leo J. O'Donovan. "An Eternal Now: Vermeer at the Met." Commonweal 136 (October 23, 2009), p. 26, ill. p. 25 (color).

Karen Rosenberg. "A Humble Domestic Crosses the Sea." New York Times (September 11, 2009), p. C29, ill. (color).

Nils Büttner. Vermeer. Munich, 2010, pp. 31–32, 44, fig. 2.

H. Perry Chapman in Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence. Exh. cat., Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. New Haven, 2011, pp. 67–68, 79–80, 82, 85, 89, 91, 112, 118, colorpl. 48.

Walter Liedtke in Vermeer: il secolo d'oro dell'arte olandese. Exh. cat., Scuderie del Quirinale. Milan, 2012, pp. 43–44, 47, 53, fig. 14 (color).