Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by Johannes Vermeer must have been a hot commodity in the late 20th century because it was stolen not once, but twice.
But before we get into that, let us ponder on what it is that made this painting so desirable as a piece to steal. It could have been because Vermeer was not a prolific artist (he only made thirty-four paintings in his whole career) and so the pieces that do exist are pretty much priceless at this point. It could also be because this piece, tonally is a little different than the rest. The people who inhabit Vermeer’s paintings are normally pretty stagnant; they kinda just sit there. This piece has a little tension thrown into the mix. This maidservant is waiting for her mistress to finish this letter so that she can get it to whomever is waiting for it. On the floor in front of these two women is a red seal, a stick of wax, and some sort of book, which all point to the fact that this is a personal letter. The assumption is that this letter is being written for a lover. But isn’t it always for a lover? God forbid someone write a grocery list for once.
The details of the painting add to the value of it as a whole as well. Vermeer, the manipulative bastard made everything in this work fancy so that it would appeal to the bourgeoisie. Hardly anyone could afford marble floors like the ones in this piece, and if they could, they would put them in the foyer so that everyone who came to the house could see them. And the same goes for the windows. Vermeer highly exaggerated the wealth of this household. The painting behind the women alludes to the meaning of the painting. The piece is The Finding of Moses by Sir Peter Lely, or at least it’s a reference to it. This scene out of the Bible is when the Pharaoh’s daughter and her maidservant find a baby hidden in like a swamp after the Pharaoh demands that all male Hebrew babies be killed. She saves it, names it Moses, and you know the rest. The moral of the story is that God is all-powerful and protective, but critics are still scratching their heads about what it means here.
So this artwork is sneaky, full of hidden messages and meanings, and misleads people on the reg, which must have been why it was the pick of two separate robbers. They must have felt a kinship with it. The first time it was taken in 1974 by the Irish Republican Army, which was controlled by Rose Dugdale, along with a Goya, three Rubens’, two Gainsboroughs, and twelve other paintings. The paintings were recovered a few days later, but then only twelve years later in 1986, the painting was taken again, this time by Martin Cahill, a famous Irish criminal. It took until 1993 for the pieces to be recovered. It now rests in the National Gallery of Ireland, hopefully under a lot of surveillance.
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