Officer and Laughing Girl
Encyclopedia
Officer and Laughing Girl, also known as Officer and a Laughing Girl and Officer With a Laughing Girl, is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer
in about 1657 and now in The Frick Collection in New York
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The theme of a girl entertaining her suitor, already popular in Dutch art, was used by Vermeer as a study of light-filled space. The dark silhouette of the officer (considerably darker in The Frick Collection's website image) helps give the painting an illusion of depth, and contrasts with the play of light on the woman and the room's furnishings. The map of Holland on the far wall, showing the west at the top, was first published in 1621, and it, along with the chairs, appear in other Vermeer paintings.
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime...
in about 1657 and now in The Frick Collection in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
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The theme of a girl entertaining her suitor, already popular in Dutch art, was used by Vermeer as a study of light-filled space. The dark silhouette of the officer (considerably darker in The Frick Collection's website image) helps give the painting an illusion of depth, and contrasts with the play of light on the woman and the room's furnishings. The map of Holland on the far wall, showing the west at the top, was first published in 1621, and it, along with the chairs, appear in other Vermeer paintings.