Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/616

 59 2 JOHANNES VERMEER SECT. only a narrow strip of which is seen parallel to the lower edge of the picture, a young girl sits facing the spectator. She sits on the chair with the lions' heads on the back, introduced in other pictures, such as 19, by Vermeer ; part of a lion's head may be seen to the left, behind the girl's arm. The girl wears a greyish-blue jacket with white fur trimming on the sleeves and down the front ; a white drapery, like a collar, is attached to the jacket. On her head she wears a hat in the shape of a flat-topped pyramid, with vertical stripes of varying width in brown, yellowish grey, and white. Her left arm rests on the edge of the table, and the hand holds a yellow flute ; her right hand rests on the table, but the fingers are partly cut off" by the frame. The girl's eyes are fixed on the spectator, and her lips are slightly parted. She wears earrings and a slender neck- lace. The light comes from above to the right, so that her fotejiead and the left side of her face are in greenish shadow* The background is filled with a Gobelins tapestry of a large pattern in shades of brown ochre, greenish grey, and dark blue such as often occurs in this master's pictures. The painting is rather spotty. The picture seems to have been cut down at the edges. Oak panel, 8 inches by 7 inches. Exhibited on loan in the Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague. 23. A YOUNG LADY AT THE VIRGINALS. B. 29; H. 32. A young lady stands in the centre at a pair of virginals ; she is seen at full length, almost in profile, but turns her head to the spectator. Her hands are on the keys of the virginals beside her to the right. She wears a white silk dress and a blue silk bodice. In the right foreground is a chair covered with blue velvet, partly hidden by the frame. On the whitewashed wall, with a lower border of Delft tiles, hangs a large picture of a nude Cupid standing with a bow in his right hand and a letter held up in his left. The same picture is given in 16 and 27. To the left of this hangs a small landscape. A landscape is painted on the lid of the instrument. To the left is a window lighting the scene. The floor is paved with black and white tiles. Signed "J. v. Meer" (the J and M intertwined); canvas, 20 inches by 1 8 inches. Exhibited at the Champs Elysees, Paris. Sales. (Possibly) Amsterdam, May 16, 1696, No. 37 (42 florins 10) but this may be the Beit (24) or the Salting (25) picture. Amsterdam, July II, 1714, No. 12 (55 florins) according to the National Gallery catalogue, but it may be the Salting picture (25), since the dimensions are not given. J. Danser Nijman, Amsterdam, August 16, 1797, No. 159 (19 florins). Edward Solly, London, May 8, 1847. In the collection of Madame Lacroix, Paris. Sale. Thore Burger, Paris, December 5, 1892, No. 30 (Lawrie and Co., for the Nation'al Gallery). Now in the National Gallery, London, 1906 catalogue, No. 1383. 24. A GIRL AT THE SPINET. A girl, seen at three-quarter