Girl with a Red Hat

Girl with a Red Hat by Vermeer

Girl with a Red Hat is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer. It is dated from about 1665 to 1666. It is painted on panel rather than on canvas. It is one of Vermeer's smallest pictures. It measures 22.8 x 18 cm (9 x 7 1/16 in.)[1] It hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

The Gallery writes, "[The] subject has turned in her chair and interacts with the viewer through her direct gaze. The effect is unusual spontaneity and informality. The artist’s exquisite use of color is the painting’s most striking characteristic, for both its compositional and its psychological impact. Vermeer concentrated the two major colors in two distinct areas: a vibrant red for the hat and a sumptuous blue for the robe; he then used the intensity of the white cravat to unify the whole."[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Girl with a Red Hat Archived 2011-10-19 at the Wayback Machine National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.