“A Young Woman standing at a Virginal” by Johannes Vermeer

“A Young Woman standing at a Virginal” by Johannes Vermeer depicts a richly dressed woman playing the virginal. A virginal was a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family, which was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance to the 1700s.

The setting for this composition is a home with a tiled floor, paintings on the wall, and some of the locally manufactured Delftware blue and white tiles of a type that appears in other Vermeer works.

This painting can be related to another Vermeer painting titled, “Lady Seated at a Virginal,” which is almost the same size, with which it may form a pair. Johannes Vermeer is one of the Netherlands’ most prominent Dutch painters.

He painted relatively few paintings, most of which had common attributes such as the use of yellow and blue tones, the depiction of women, and domestic settings.

Vermeer offered glimpses into the lives of Holland’s cultured citizens. Although little is known about Vermeer’s life, historians do know of his baptism and fragments of his life in Delft.

Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He was a moderately successful painter in his lifetime.

However, he was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death.

There are only thirty-four paintings by Vermeer, and they are challenging to date. Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes, and most of his pictures are set in the rooms of his house in Delft.

There are similar furniture and decorations in various arrangements in his domestic scenes, and his art often portrays the same people. 

 He was not wealthy, as he left his family in debt after his death. He produced relatively few paintings compared to his contemporaries.

Art historians mainly overlooked Vermeer’s works for several centuries after his death. However, his reputation has skyrocketed in the last few hundred years, and he is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.

A Young Woman standing at a Virginal

• Title:              A Young Woman standing at a Virginal
• Artist:            Johannes Vermeer
• Year:             1670
• Medium:       Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Height: 51.7 cm (20.3 in); Width: 45.2 cm (17.7 in)
• Museum:      National Gallery, London

Johannes Vermeer

• Artist:            Johannes Vermeer
• Born:            1632 – Delft, Dutch Republic
• Died:            1675 (aged 43) – Delft, Dutch Republic
• Nationality:   Dutch
• Movement:   Dutch Golden Age, Baroque
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • The Concert
  • Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman
  • Woman with a Pearl Necklace
  • The Milkmaid
  • The Little Street
  • The Allegory of Faith
  • The Music Lesson
  • The Lacemaker
  • The Geographer
  • Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
  • A Young Woman standing at a Virginal

Vermeer – A Lady Standing at a Virginal

Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting

A Tour of The National Gallery

13th Century Paintings

• “The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Narrative Scenes” by Margarito d’Arezzo – 1264
• “The Virgin and Child” by Master of the Clarisse – 1268
• “Crucifix” by Master of Saint Francis – 1270

14th Century Paintings

• Wilton Diptych – 1395
• “The Annunciation” by Duccio – 1311
• “The Healing of the Man Born Blind” by Duccio – 1311

15th Century Paintings

• “Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan van Eyck –  1434
• “The Battle of San Romano” by Paolo Uccello– 1440
• “Venus and Mars” by Sandro Botticelli – 1483
• “Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan” by Giovanni Bellini– 1501

16th Century Paintings

• “Mystic Nativity” by Sandro Botticelli – 1550
• “Virgin of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci – 1506
• “The Madonna of the Pinks” by Raphael – 1507
• “The Raising of Lazarus” by Sebastiano del Piombo– 1519
• “Salvator Mundi” by Andrea Previtali – 1519
• “Bacchus and Ariadne” by Titian – 1523
• “The Ambassadors” by Hans Holbein the Younger – 1533
• “Mary Magdalene” by Girolamo Savoldo – 1540
• “Saint George and the Dragon” by Tintoretto – 1558
• “The Family of Darius before Alexander” by Paolo Veronese – 1567
• “Diana and Actaeon” by Titian – 1569
• “The Rape of Europa” by Paolo Veronese – 1570
• “The Death of Actaeon” by Titian – 1575
• “The Origin of the Milky Way” by Tintoretto – 1575

17th Century Paintings

• “Supper at Emmaus” by Caravaggio – 1601
• “Samson and Delilah” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1610
• “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary” by Diego Velázquez – 1618
• “The Judgement of Paris” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1635
• “Aurora abducting Cephalus” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1637
• “Equestrian Portrait of Charles I” by Anthony van Dyck – 1638
• “Venus at her Mirror” by Diego Velázquez – 1651
• “The Courtyard of a House in Delft” by Pieter de Hooch – 1658
• “Self Portrait at the Age of 63” by Rembrandt – 1669
• “A Young Woman standing at a Virginal” by Johannes Vermeer – 1670

18th Century Paintings

• “Bacchus and Ariadne” by Sebastiano Ricci – 1713
• “A Regatta on the Grand Canal” by Canaletto – 1740
• “Mr. and Mrs. Andrews” by Thomas Gainsborough – 1749
• “Eton College” by Canaletto – 1754
• “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” by Joseph Wright of Derby – 1768
• “Self-portrait in a Straw Hat” by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – 1782

Vermeer: Painter of Music

19th Century Paintings

• “Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel” by Francisco Goya – 1805
• “The Emperor Napoleon I” by Horace Vernet – 1815
• “Dido Building Carthage” by J. M. W. Turner – 1815
• “Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows” by John Constable – 1831
• “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delaroche – 1833
• “The Fighting Temeraire” by Joseph Mallord William Turner – 1839
• “Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway” by J. M. W. Turner – 1844
• “Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence” by Frederic Leighton – 1855
• “Madame Moitessier” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres– 1856
• “The Gare St-Lazare” by Claude Monet – 1877
• “Bathers at Asnières” by Georges Seurat – 1884
• “Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh – 1888
• “Tiger in a Tropical Storm” by Henri Rousseau – 1891
• “After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself” by Edgar Degas – 1895
• “Boulevard Montmartre at Night” by Camille Pissarro – 1898

20th Century Paintings

• “Misia Sert” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir –  1904
• “Portrait of Hermine Gallia” by Gustav Klimt – 1904
• Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) by  Paul Cézanne – 1905
• “Men of the Docks” by George Bellows –  1912
• “Water-Lilies” by Claude Monet (National Gallery, London) – 1916

Explore The National Gallery

• The National Gallery
• Masterpieces of The National Gallery
• The National Gallery, London – Crossword Puzzles

National Gallery – Vermeer Lady Standing At A Virginal – London – Audio Guide

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“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

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Photo Credit: 1) Johannes Vermeer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons