A Lady Playing the Guitar

Vermeer's A Lady Playing the Guitar from around 1670-72, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is one of his late works depicting a young musician in an interior. The painting's warmer palette and broader handling distinguish it from his cool, precisely lit middle-period works. The curtain at the left and the landscape painting on the wall are standard elements of Vermeer's mature compositions, but here they are rendered with a freedom that suggests the artist was moving in a somewhat different direction in his final years.

The late technique shows broader, more summary handling than Vermeer's middle-period works, with warmer tones replacing the cool blues and grays of the 1660s. The woman's pearl earring and the light on her face retain the characteristic Vermeer luminosity despite the more relaxed overall execution.