Girl Asleep at Table

Back to Jan Vermeer paintings

Tags: table - tablecloth - sleeping - girl - fruit

Girl Asleep at Table

1657

by Jan Vermeer

A Girl Asleep at Table is one of the early paintings by Jan Vermeer. From the rich and heavily impastoed pigments used in the painting, we could see the influence Vermeer received from the works of fellow Dutchman Rembrandt.

Technical examinations revealed that Vermeer made major changes in the course of execution. He initially put a man in the second room instead of the mirror, and a dog in the doorway. He also enlarged the picture on the wall, which shows part of a Cupid in the style of Caesar van Everdingen, which is seen in other of Vermeer paintings. There have been various attempts at emblematic interpretation of the scene.