SPEAKER 1: It's really
interesting to photograph
a Vermeer because everything
always seems out of focus.
It's one
of the strangest things.
And even restorers have been
bothered by this.
And this painting, Woman Writing
a Letter,
is a wonderful example.
When we brought it
in to restoration, the arm
was in fact quite
precise in definition.
And we discovered that, in fact,
the restorer had made a contour
line along that arm to make it
defined in space, sort of losing
the whole quality of light
that Vermeer was creating.
SPEAKER 2: That is so
unlike Vermeer.
Vermeer did not create
hard edges.
They were all soft.
And this repaint was quite
clearly much later than Vermeer.
Having established
that this paint was false,
it was removed very easily
with no damage to the underline.
And there you see
this typical, lovely, soft edge
to her arm as she leans--
rather, she caresses the table,
in the same way that she's
caressing the letter which she's
writing.
It's a most intimate, quiet
painting.
In fact, I think it's the most
quiet, soulful of all
of his paintings,
as far as I'm concerned.
SPEAKER 1: Part of the magic
of Vermeer
is to create more than he
actually has put down, to give
you a sense of more there
than there is.
And that happens a lot
with color.
He uses color so selectively,
and you feel
this wonderful yellow
of her jacket.
But when you look at it
carefully, you see, in fact,
that there's very little yellow
there.
It's only in those highlights
where the light is hitting
the form that he's actually
using the lead tin
yellow to give
that focus for the rest.
It's really done in ochres.
It's very subtle, very
understated.
This is something that he does
throughout his career.
It's the suggestion of, form
suggestion of colour, suggestion
of space, done with the most
minimum of means--
the suggestion of narrative.
The suggestion
of emotional energy.
The feeling of mood.
It's just the hints
of these things.
So what happens then
is that we complete them.
He leaves lots of room for us
to enter into these things,
and for us to become part
of the whole experience
to create it, to fulfill it,
to finish it.
In our own individual ways.
