Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

The painting shows a woman standing in profile, reading a letter she holds with both hands, in a softly lit room. She wears a blue outer garment over a lighter bodice with a dark skirt, and a map on the wall plus a dark draped table and a blue-studded chair appear in the foreground. The composition uses cool blues against warm neutrals, with precise brushwork and a subdued, contemplative mood typical of Vermeer’s Dutch genre painting.