Description of the picture:
The officer and the laughing girl are Jan Vermeer. Canvas, oil. 504.8 x 460.4 cm
In the period from 1655 to 1660, Ian Vermeer painted several paintings on the theme “gentlemen, girls, wine”, including the famous “Officer and Laughing Girl”, the second picture on this subject after the “Proxies”. This is understandable – Vermeer is young, full of life’s joys and creative powers.
The canvas opens in front of the viewer a simple room with two characters. The interior of the room – carved chairs, a map on the wall, a lattice window – is repeated in various variations in several paintings by the artist. But each has its own mood, its own psychology of the plot.
The main character of this painting, of course, is a smiling girl with a glass in her hand. Her beautiful face is lit by a stream of light penetrating through a half-open window. I would like to note that in this work Vermeer proved to be a great master of the image of light and air. Feel how the vibration of air is felt, how the daytime heat spreads around the room and gently envelops the cheerful girl with rosy cheeks, how the light plays on the iridescent fabric of her dress.
The faces of the brave officer are practically invisible, only a slightly outlined profile. But this is also a colorful character – he has a black band, bright rich clothes, a wide-brimmed hat.
Here, the author applied an interesting artistic technique called repussoir (from French – pushing, reflection), which, incidentally, was often used by the famous Italian Caravaggio. It is this method that Vermeer uses to portray an officer in the foreground. It seems that his figure dominates, the red color of his clothes and a dark hat contrast with the light and soft image of the girl. As a result, the background depth is enhanced, the canvas in the future looks very impressive, the look stops on it.
What are the young officers and the girls talking about?
Maybe this is a fun conspiracy about a meeting between a warrior who has returned from another campaign and a girl who sells love. This option is inclined by those who saw in the image of the beauty’s left hand an eloquent gesture involving payment for certain services.
Perhaps this is an easy, non-binding conversation between a soldier and an attractive, cheerful beauty.
Or maybe this is the mistress of the inn, and the man liked her so much that he drags out time so as not to say goodbye to her any longer. She is sympathetic to this, cheerfully supports the conversation, but expects him to pay for food and drink anyway.
On this occasion, a lot of heated discussion was held among art historians and experts on Vermeer’s work. But, we can only speculate, since the painter (consciously or not) always leaves a whole field for guesswork and reflection on the history of the heroes of his stories."