View source for A Young Woman Reading (Vermeer imitator)

{{Short description|Painting by in the manner of Johannes Vermeer}}
{{Infobox artwork/wikidata|suppressfields=year
| artist             = Unknown in the manner of [[Johannes Vermeer]]|onlysourced=yes
}}
'''''A Young Woman Reading''''' (after 1670s) is an [[oil painting|oil]] on canvas painting by an unknown painter in the manner of the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] painter [[Johannes Vermeer]]. It is an example of [[Dutch Golden Age painting]] and is part of the collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].

== Description ==
This painting by a follower of Vermeer was purchased by [[Jules Bache]] as autograph for $134,800 in 1928, and he left it to the museum (as autograph) in 1949.<ref name=Liedtke>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jtnQ7PIT8mcC&pg=PA500 Catalog nr. 207]  in ''Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Volume II, by [[Walter Liedtke]], Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007</ref>

Years later it became apparent that it was a modern forgery, but the attribution to [[Han van Meegeren]] is uncertain. Bache had purchased it from Wildenstein who had acquired it from dr. G.A. Rademaker of [[The Hague]].<ref name=Liedtke/> Bache had previously purchased two other old master paintings for similar prices which he subsequently left to the museum:
<gallery>
File:Portrait of a Young Boy MET ep49.7.39.bw.R.jpg|Purchased for $175,000 in 1925 as a Vermeer, but since attributed to [[Sebastian Bourdon]]
File:Portrait of a Bearded Man with a Ruff by Frans Hals.jpg|Purchased for $121,176.25 in 1926 as a [[Frans Hals|Hals]]
</gallery>

Like ''[[A Lady Playing the Guitar]]'', the painting is a quiet witness to the popularity of Vermeer among the US art collectors of the early 20th-century. The attribution was called into question by [[W.R. Valentiner]] soon after the Dutch art collector and critic [[Vitale Bloch]] published an article about it in 1928. Bloch mentioned that the seascape was similar to the ''[[The Love Letter (Vermeer)|Love Letter]]'' and the head was similar to ''[[Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window]]''. What he saw as proof of authenticity was interpreted by Valentiner to be cause for concern, especially since "to hear almost every year of a newly discovered Vermeer may cause suspicion".<ref name=Liedtke/>

== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
*[https://rkd.nl/explore/images/271686 Young woman reading a letter in an interior, tweede helft 17e eeuw] in the [[RKD]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young Woman Reading}}
[[Category:1920s paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
[[Category:Johannes Vermeer]]


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