Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window from around 1657-59, in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, was dramatically transformed by a 2021 restoration that revealed a painting of Cupid on the wall behind the reader, which had been painted over in the eighteenth century. The revealed Cupid fundamentally changes the painting's meaning, confirming that the letter is a love letter and that the young woman's absorption is romantic rather than merely domestic. The restoration was one of the most significant art-historical discoveries of the twenty-first century.

Vermeer's early-mature technique creates a complex interplay of reflections in the open window glass, where the woman's face appears as a faint reflection. The newly revealed Cupid painting and the warm palette demonstrate the artist's developing command of spatial light and symbolic composition.