Young Woman with a Water Pitcher

The painting’s story and details

The woman holds the window with one hand and a pitcher above a basin with the other. White linen protects her hair and dress during washing. Vermeer painted the scene around 1662 in Delft.

The white linen around her head and shoulders changes colour with the light. It almost glows on the left and passes into bluish shade on the right. Lower folds show faintly through thinner sections. Small tonal differences convey thickness without outlining every edge equally sharply.

Her fingers appear beside the open casement. Its geometric leading divides the glass into small sections. Light enters from this side, but the street remains unseen. The window provides illumination and air while leaving outside events beyond the painting’s edge.

The pitcher and basin are made of gilded silver. Bright highlights and reflected neighbouring colours cross their surfaces. Washing here involves expensive utensils. An apparently simple activity takes place in a household able to afford such objects.

A Turkish carpet covers the table. Its red ground and blue and yellow pattern fill the lower right corner. Imported textile belongs to the room’s everyday furnishings. The household’s prosperity connects it with a world beyond Delft.

A map hangs above the woman, with a dark roller along its bottom. Its rectangle balances the window on the opposite side. Beside the pale wall, the map looks dense and dark. Vermeer positions these large forms so that the figure remains between them against an open, light area.

Vermeer worked for a relatively small circle of buyers and produced few paintings. His domestic scenes combined observation with deliberate arrangements of objects. International fame came much later. This was his first painting to enter an American collection, and it was given to the Metropolitan Museum in 1889.