27 Introduction Until the most recent conservation treatments, the appearance of Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window in Dresden – a work documented by sources from the 18th century onwards and described in numerous gallery catalogues and countless art-historical publications – gave no cause for doubt as to the authenticity of its composition. Setting aside the general uncertainty regarding the work’s attribution that lasted until the mid-19th century and the ‘rediscovery’ of Vermeer in general, in the records on its conservation history there is just one sentence which, looking back from what we know now, may express doubt as to the technical condition and state of preservation of the painting. One treatment in 1838 is documented with a short handwritten note, both in a copy of the gallery catalogue belonging to the gallery’s director, Friedrich Matthäi, and on a slip of paper, very damaged today, on the rear of the frame. In Matthäi’s copy of the catalogue, the entry for no. 603 – titled “Junges Mädchen am Fenster” (Young Girl at the Window) and believed at this point in time to be the work of “Peter de Hooghe” (Pieter de Hooch) – is annotated with the words: “In 1838, 603 was carefully cleaned, as well as repaired and varnished in several damaged areas; but had certainly been in the hands of a restorer previously”1 (figs. 2, 3). The note is too short to be able to interpret from it whether the restorer at the time (the two Galerieinspektoren, or ‘surveyors’ of the collection, Johann August Renner and Carl Martin Schirmer, were both active in the gallery in this period) had noticed that a significant part of the picture was overpainted and did not reflect the artist’s original composition. No suspicions were raised during the documented minor treatment in 1868 “on the curtain and on the window side,”2 nor did the chemist Hermann Kühn, working one hundred years later, doubt the presumed authenticity of the paint layers while investigating Vermeer’s primers and colours after having taken selected paint samples, including from overpainted areas. Kühn prepared nine samples, whereby three of the samples could have contained information on the border situation at the margins.3 It was not until 1979 that an X-radiograph produced of the painting during an exhibition of Dresden masterpieces in San Francisco provided insights into deeper-lying layers of paint. The large Cupid figure was now seen in the background, as was the oversized roemer with its similarly forceful presence in the lower right-hand corner of the painting. A slight turning of the girl’s position could also be discerned from the X-ray image. These interesting The Restoration of the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer Christoph Schölzel Fig. 2 Friedrich Matthäi, Verzeichnis der königlich Sächsischen Gemälde-Galerie zu Dresden, Dresden 1835, p. 116, handwritten entry for catalog no. 603 Fig. 1 Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, Detail during varnish removal Fig. 3 Remains of a restoration note on the rear of the frame
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