| Officer and Laughing Girl | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Johannes Vermeer |
| Year | c. 1657[1] |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | Dutch Golden Age painting |
| Dimensions | 50.5 cm × 46.0 cm (19.9 in × 18.1 in)[1] |
| Location | The Frick Collection, New York |
Officer and Laughing Girl, also known as Officer and a Laughing Girl, Officer With a Laughing Girl or, in Dutch, De Soldaat en het Lachende Meisje (literally, The Soldier and the Laughing Girl), is an oil painting on canvas executed ca. 1657 by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Its dimensions are 50.5 by 46 cm. It is now one of three pictures by Vermeer in The Frick Collection in New York.[2][3]
Officer and Laughing Girl includes many of the characteristics of Vermeer's style. The main subject is a woman in a yellow dress, light is coming from the left-hand side of the painting from an open window, and there is a large map on the wall. Each of these elements occur in some of his other paintings, although this painting differs slightly with the man also sitting at the table. Art historians, who have suggested conflicting interpretations of the work, believe that a painting by Gerard van Honthorst inspired the composition and that Vermeer may have used a camera obscura to create the perspective in this painting.
- ^ a b "Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675)/Officer and Laughing Girl, c. 1657". The Frick Collection web site. Archived from the original on 15 March 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
- ^ Collection, Frick (1968). The Frick Collection:an Illustrated Catalogue. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. vol.1, 286–291.
- ^ Quodbach, Esmée (2008). "Frick's Vermeers Reunited". The Frick Collection. Retrieved 18 July 2020.