Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/620

 596 JOHANNES VERMEER SECT. In the Van der Hoop collection, Amsterdam. Now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Van der Hoop bequest, 1905 catalogue, No. 2527. 32. THE LOVE-LETTER. An open door, to the right of which is a chair with papers on it, gives a view into a room brightly lighted from an unseen window to the left. In the centre, facing the spectator, sits a young lady holding a lute in her left hand, and in the right a letter which she has just taken from a maid-servant standing behind her to the left. She directs a questioning glance at the maid-servant, who answers with a smile. On the tiled floor to the left are a cushion and a work-basket. The hearth is partly visible behind her to the right. On the wall to the left is a piece of a gilt leather hanging, similar to that which is introduced in Dr. Bredius's allegorical picture at The Hague (2) ; above it hang two pictures one of them a sea-piece, the other a landscape with a road through a wood. In the doorway in the foreground are two wooden shoes and a broom. A Gobelins tapestry fills the right upper corner of the picture. Signed on the wall above the work-basket " J. v. Meer " (the J and M intertwined) ; canvas, 17^ inches by 15 inches. Exhibited at The Hague, 1890, No. 116. In the collection of J. F. van Lennep, Amsterdam. Sale. Messchert van Vollenhoven, Amsterdam, March 29, 1892, No. 14 (41,000 florins). Purchased in 1893 for the Rijksmuseum, with the help of the Rembrandt Society. Now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1905 catalogue, No. 2528. 33. A LADY AND A MAID-SERVANT. B. 8; H. 8. In the right foreground a young woman is seated at a table, on which she rests her right arm. She is seen at half length, in profile to the left. She holds a pen in her right hand, and seems to have been interrupted in her writing. She leans her chin on her left hand. She wears a jacket of lemon-yellow, trimmed with ermine, and has a string of pearls in her hair. She looks at a maid-servant in grey who stands, facing the spectator, to the left behind the table and hands the lady a letter. The table has a blue cover ; on it are a casket and writing materials. The background is dark. Canvas, 35 inches by 30 inches. Described byL. Lagrange, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1859 and 1861 ; and by M. Chaumelin, Tr'esors Art de la Provence, 1862. Engraved in the Petite Galerie Lebrun, 1809. Exhibited at Marseilles, 1861, and at Berlin, 1906. Sales. Amsterdam, May 16, 1696, No. 7 (70 florins). (According to W. Burger) Josua van Belle, Rotterdam, 1730 (see 35); Hendrik van Slingeland, The Hague, 1770 (see 35); Blondel de Gagny, Paris, 1776 as a Ter Borch (3902 francs) ; and Poullain, Paris, 1780. Lebrun, Paris, 1809 (600 francs).