Girl with the Red Hat
Shown from the elbows up, a young person with pale skin and brown hair wearing a wide, scarlet-red hat sits in front of a tapestry in this vertical portrait painting. She sits with her body facing our right in profile but she turns her face to look at or toward us with dark eyes. She has a rounded nose, rather flat cheeks, and a sliver of teeth is visible through parted coral-pink lips. The wide brim of the red hat seems to be made of a soft, almost feathery material, and it casts a shadow across her face. She wears a high-collared white garment that catches the light, a royal-blue, possibly velvet, robe or overcoat, and large, teardrop pearl earrings. Her arm runs along the bottom edge of the panel in front of two carved, wooden lion finials that could be the arm or back of the chair. The tapestry behind her is painted in tones of pale caramel brown and pine green. The painting has a soft, hazy look, and light glints with bright white specks off the pearl earrings, the tip of her nose, her lips, and the lion finials.
Details
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- painted surface: 22.8 x 18 cm (9 x 7 1/16 in.) support: 23.2 x 18.1 cm (9 1/8 x 7 1/8 in.) framed: 40.3 x 35.6 x 4.4 cm (15 7/8 x 14 x 1 3/4 in.)
- Department
- CNE-B
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
8 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The catalog identifies the work as a portrait, and the image presents one posed sitter in a tightly cropped bust-length composition.
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Face Both · 99%
The sitter’s face occupies the compositional center and is rendered with clearly described facial features and small points of reflected light.
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Eye Contact Both · 96%
The figure turns her face toward the viewer and looks outward from the picture.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Both · 93%
The image is dominated by deep blue, brown, green, and red tones with relatively low overall luminosity; the catalog describes the subdued brown-and-green tapestry and blue robe alongside the scarlet hat.
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Blurred Both · 94%
The image shows soft, hazy transitions around the face, clothing, and background, consistent with the catalog’s explicit description of the painting’s soft, hazy appearance.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil on Panel Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies the medium as oil on panel.
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Painting Metadata · 99%
The museum classification identifies the object as a painting.
Time Periods
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17th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to approximately 1669, within the seventeenth century.
Source & rights
Johannes Vermeer. Girl with the Red Hat. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.