Young woman in a yellow bodice bent over a lace pillow, handling threads and bobbins with both hands

The Lacemaker

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What you see

A young woman bends over her work, so close that we seem to sit across from her. With both hands she manages bobbins and pins over a blue pillow set on a small wooden table. Her hair is pinned up in a braid with ringlets at the sides, and she wears a yellow bodice with a white collar. On the left, a sewing cushion and a book fill the foreground.

The lower part, closest to us, is blurry, while the hands and threads are sharp, as if our eyes focused there. Yellow and blues stand out against a light gray wall. Look for the red and white threads spilling from the sewing cushion on the left like poured paint, and the turned knob on the little table.

About Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer lived his whole life in Delft and painted very slowly: only about 35 of his works are known. He loved the soft light that comes through a window and falls on quiet scenes of daily life. He used very expensive pigments, such as ultramarine blue made from a precious stone.

All 10 works by Johannes Vermeer