Vermeer's 'Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window' presented in Dresden

The internationally well-known and venerated painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer can now, more than two and a half centuries on, be enjoyed looking just as it did when it left the artist’s studio. Previous x-ray examinations indicated that a picture of a naked Cupid in the painting had been overpainted. Today, new laboratory tests have conclusively determined that the overpainting was not by Vermeer’s hand. On this basis, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister decided in the course of the current restoration of the work to remove the overpaint. To allow the public to participate in the process of restoration, the Girl Reading a Letter will be presented in its current intermediate state at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in the Semperbau from 8 May to 16 June 2019. Johannes Vermeer’s (1632–1675) Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (ca. 1657/59) has long counted among the principal work