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Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, ca. 1660–67
Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675)
Oil on canvas; 18 x 16 in. (45.7 x 40.6 cm)
Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889 (89.15.21)
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Description
We know little about the life of Johannes Vermeer. He apparently did not paint a great number of pictures—fewer than forty of his works have survived—and his work was not well known in his lifetime. Not until the French critic Théophile Thoré rediscovered him, nearly two hundred years after his death, did Vermeer's fame begin to grow. Today he is recognized as a master of Dutch genre painting and is widely admired for both his technical skill and his poetic vision.
On one level, the subject of Young Woman with a Water Jug is straightforward: a moment of domestic harmony. But this painting is just as surely about the cool stillness of the light and the various textures of the fabrics and objects. The difference between the woman's starched coif and the Turkish carpet that covers the table is palpable. Vermeer has even captured the reflection of the carpet in the underside of the basin. All these details are unified in an exquisitely balanced composition. The gentle curve of the figure creates a beautiful counterpoint to the rectangular strictness of the window, table, and hanging map.
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