A Girl Receiving a Letter

This small panel by Gabriël Metsu, dated around 1658, shows a seated woman under an arcade, a book resting on her lap. A boy has just delivered a letter that is presumed to come from a suitor. Metsu places her in a calm, orderly setting: in the background rises a Palladian villa, an architecture that suggests a comfortable household without any showy detail. In front of her stands a vase of flowers, most likely carrying a symbolic meaning, though the painting does not make it explicit. The work is believed to complement another painting, A Man with Pen in Hand and a Maid-Servant, now in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France. Both seem conceived as a pair, and the intimate moment of reading contrasts with the man's act of writing. This pairing is one of the features that makes the piece noteworthy within Dutch genre painting.

Painter

Gabriel Metsu

Date

1658

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

26 × 25 cm

Museum

Timken Museum of Art, San Diego

Genre

genre art

Depicts

woman

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