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Warm, diffuse light fills a room where a girl sits, chin in hand, on a ladderback chair facing our left in profile in this vertical painting. She is at the opposite end of a long room from us, across an expanse of ginger-brown floor. A dark, cabinet-like form spans the far, narrow end of the room and we slowly realize that a woman with closed eyes lies in the shadowy bed enclosed within. Both women both have light skin. The girl in the chair wears a slate-gray skirt and cinnamon-brown jacket with a white kerchief draped down her shoulders. The back of her brown hair is covered by a pleated white cap. She is flanked by short, ladderback chairs with rushed seats along the far wall. To our left, in front of her, the top half of a Dutch door is swung inward. Light pours through the door and the deep-set window above it. The room has tall cream-white walls with dark wooden beams and a wooden ceiling overhead. The opening to the enclosed bed is lined with burgundy-red curtains, and two gleaming brass balls hang from the top edge. A perforated brass bowl hangs at the opening to our left. The right side of the room is nearly filled with a tall, wide fireplace mantel that supports an angled chimney rising to the upper right. Footed, pewter bowls hang from the top corners of the mantelpiece and a silver candlestick stands atop each of the two front corners. A small fire burns in the fireplace, while a pair of tongs and copper vessel stand nearby. The beams, door, doorframe, and mantel are all mahogany brown. Almond-white plates decorated with loosely painted strokes and daubs of brown are set along the ledges created by the molding over the bed and mantel.

Jacobus Vrel

Young Woman in an Interior, c. 1660

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 50-A

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 55.7 × 41.3 cm (21 15/16 × 16 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of June deH. and Henry H. Weldon

Accession Number

2012.106.1

Artists / Makers

Jacobus Vrel (artist) Dutch, active 1654 - c. 1670

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Overview

Jacobus Vrel imbued his interiors with an unpretentious clarity, frequently showing inhabitants turned away from the viewer to focus on domestic tasks, or looking through a window to the outside world. In this charming painting, a nurse quietly gazes out an open door as she sits near a bed-bound woman. Set in a room with plain white walls, a fireplace, window, door, and series of plates decorating the mantelpiece, the women are lost in their thoughts and show no sign of interaction. The resulting effect is a scene without narrative but filled with a quiet sense of mystery. This feeling is reinforced by the subtle harmony of the patterns of light and color that fall on the room's intriguing architectural elements.

Very little is known about Vrel, not even the location in which he worked. The intimacy and quiet charm of his interior scenes suggest a spiritual kinship with Delft artists Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) and Pieter de Hooch (1629–1684), with whom his work has been confused, but it is unlikely that he resided in Delft. Moreover, Vrel's earliest dated paintings predate both Vermeer and De Hooch's work, indicating that he developed his style and technique independent of them.

Provenance

Frits Lugt [1884-1970], Maartensdijk, before 1929.[1] M. van Leeuwen-Boomkamp, Oud-Bussum, near Hilversum, by 1935;[2] P. van Leeuwen-Boomkamp, Oud-Bussum, near Hilversum, by 1955;[3] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 December 1971, no. 45); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles;[4] deaccessioned 2007 by the Getty Museum; (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 2007, no. 7); June deH. [Mrs. Henry H.] Weldon, New York; gift 2012 to NGA.

[1] Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Pieter de Hooch: des meisters gemälde in 180 abbildungen mit einem anhang über di genremaler um Pieter de Hooch und die kunst Hendrik van der Burchs." Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 35 (1929): xxxiii (also 1930 English ed., translated by Alice M. Sharkey and E. Schwandt, London and New York).

[2] Clotilde Brière-Misme. "Un 'Intimiste' hollandaise: Jacob Vrel." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 68, no. 365 (November 1935): 160, 162.

[3] This owner lent the painting to an exhibition in Rotterdam in 1955.

[4] The painting was accession number 71.PB.61 in the Getty's collection.

Associated Names

J. Paul Getty Museum, The
Lugt, Frits
Sotheby's
Weldon, Henry H., Mrs.
van Leeuwen-Boomkamp, M.
van Leeuwen-Boomkamp, P.

Exhibition History

1955: Kunstschatten uit Nederlandse verzamelingen, Museum Boymans (now Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Rotterdam, 1955, no. 135, fig. 141.

1972: Loan to display with permanent collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1972-1973.

Bibliography

1929: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Dutch Genre Painters in the Age of Pieter de Hooch, II, Jacobus Vrel." Art in America and Elsewhere 17(1929): 88.

1929: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Pieter de Hooch: des meisters gemälde in 180 abbildungen mit einem anhang über di genremaler um Pieter de Hooch und die kunst Hendrik van der Burchs." Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 35 (1929): xxxiii (also 1930 English ed., translated by Alice M. Sharkey and E. Schwandt, London and New York).

1935: Brière-Misme, Clotilde. "Un 'Intimiste' hollandaise: Jacob Vrel." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 68, no. 365 (November 1935): 160, 162.

1986: Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids and Kampen, 1986: 144.

1997: Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, 1997: 134, repro.

2004: Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover: Jacobus Vrel, Young Woman in an Interior." Journal of the American Medical Association 291, no. 13 (7 April 2004): 1539, repro.