Quote from the website of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden

“For more than 250 years now, the famous painting by Johannes Vermeer featuring a profile depiction of a girl intently reading a letter in front of a light-coloured empty wall has held a firm place among the masterpieces in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie. This picture, which dates to around 1657–1659, is regarded as one of the earliest interior paintings by Vermeer with a solitary figure. Previous X-ray examinations indicated that a picture of a naked Cupid in the painting had been overpainted. Today, new laboratory tests have conclusively determined that the overpainting was not by Vermeer’s hand. On this basis, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister decided in the course of the current restoration of the work to remove the overpaint. The painting can now be enjoyed looking just as it did when it left the artist’s studio.”

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Video: Restoration of the painting (in German)

A richly illustrated presentation on the painting technique and pigments employed by Johannes Vermeer specially crafted for Art Education. (Number of Slides = 24)

• Each presentation starts with the basic resources on the painter such as his biography, main catalogs of his paintings, and a bibliography.
• Next, you find slides describing the painting technique of the artist and the pigments he usually employed in his work.
• The majority of the slides show examples of paintings containing the specific pigments.

Slides showing the basic resources on the paintings of the Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer. 

The painting technique of Johannes Vermeer is described and illustrated in the next slides.

The majority of the slides show important examples of paintings where Vermeer employed specific pigments. The slides are organized according to the color of the pigments.