The Love Letter by Johannes Vermeer Jigsaw Puzzle

The Love Letter by Johannes Vermeer, c. 1666, is a small oil on canvas genre painting of a woman receiving a love letter via her maid. The darkened, trompe l'oeil foreground with curtains through which is seen the deep linear perspective of the chequered floor with broom, slippers and laundry basket give the viewer the impression of witnessing a very personal scene. Johannes (Jan) Vermeer (1632 - 1675) was a Dutch master painter of interior genre scenes whose works were rediscovered in the 19th century. In carefully constructed, geometric compositions drawn in meticulous linear perspective, Vermeer explored the effects of light and colour across human figures, objects and textures in sunlit, domestic rooms, building upon the optical discoveries and 3D perspectival depth of Leonardo and the Renaissance. Both a painter and an art dealer, Vermeer slowly produced a few of his painstakingly executed, richly pigmented compositions per year, living entirely within his home city of Delft, eschewing the fame of his near contemporaries Rubens and Rembrandt that he achieved finally in the modern era.