From the Art Newspaper, May 7 2019:
Laboratory tests revealed "sensational" discovery that the figure in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window was overpainted decades after the artist’s death
A hidden Cupid in Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, one of the world’s most famous paintings, is set to resurface on the canvas after two and a half centuries behind a layer of paint. During restoration work, conservators discovered, to their surprise, that the naked figure—which dominates the upper right section of the picture—was overpainted long after the artist’s death.On the original canvas, the Cupid “picture within a picture” hung on the wall behind the letter-reading girl. It was detected 40 years ago by x-ray, but scholars had always assumed that Vermeer himself painted over it, says Uta Neidhardt, the senior conservator at Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie. The decision to restore Cupid to the work was taken after recent laboratory tests established beyond doubt that the figure was overpainted decades after Vermeer completed it.“There was even a layer of dirt above the original varnish on the Cupid, showing the painting had been in its original state for decades,” Neidhardt says. The overpainting was also slightly darker than the colour used by Vermeer in the background of his work, because the later artist needed to compensate for the darkening varnish on the original, she says.“This is the most sensational experience of my career,” she says. “It makes it a different painting.”Produced in around 1657, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window has been in Dresden’s city collections since 1742 and is one of just 35 paintings definitively attributed to Vermeer. The same Cupid painting also features in A Lady Standing at a Virginal in the National Gallery in London. Scholars believe it may have been a real picture in Vermeer’s possession: a 1676 inventory of his widow’s belongings includes mention of “a Cupid.”
The work with the cupid showing
Courtesy of the SKD. Photo: Wolfgang Kreische
Vermeer often referenced other works of art in his paintings as a device to convey supplementary information or commentary. The Cupid painting is “the only clue suggesting a love story” in the painting, Neidhardt says. “The elements of disguise and concealment play a less dominant role in this early work by Vermeer than the composition whose background was changed by another hand led us to believe.”.......MUCH MORE
And in a slightly less Valentiney mood (don't worry, we'll circle back around), from an October 2020 post about evictions, one of the more evocative photographs on the subject. A young mother reading an eviction notice:
Woman Reading Possession Order, Hackney, London 1997 at the Victoria & Albert
