A Maid Asleep by Johannes Vermeer - 1656–57 - 87.6 x 76.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art A Maid Asleep by Johannes Vermeer - 1656–57 - 87.6 x 76.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Maid Asleep

oil on canvas • 87.6 x 76.5 cm
  • Johannes Vermeer - 1632 - December 1675 Johannes Vermeer 1656–57

As today is World Sleep Day, we had to present today one of the most famous sleeping characters in art history!

This painting is the earliest indisputable work created by Johannes Vermeer. Its composition is very simple; at the far end of the table is a young woman asleep, her head resting on her propped-up right arm and hand; the left one lies negligently flat. To the right is the back of a chair, and in the distance a half-open door that allows the viewer to see into another room.

The subject, which is the misbehavior of unsupervised maidservants, was common for 17th-century Dutch painters. Yet in his depiction of a young maid dozing next to a glass of wine, Vermeer transfigured an ordinary scene into an investigation of light, color, and texture that supersedes any moralizing lesson. While the toppled glass at left (now abraded with time) and rumpled table carpet may indicate a recently departed visitor, X-radiographs indicate that Vermeer chose to remove a male figure he had originally included standing in the door­way, heightening the painting’s ambiguity.

Happy sleeping today!

P.S. This is not the first time an X-ray uncovered some new detail in Vermeer's painting. Check out the mysterious Cupid discovered some time ago in Dresden.  :)

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