Young Woman in an Interior

Jacobus Vrel imbued his interiors with an unpretentious clarity, frequently showing inhabitants turned away from the viewer to focus on domestic tasks, or looking through a window to the outside world. In this charming painting, a nurse quietly gazes out an open door as she sits near a bed-bound woman. Set in a room with plain white walls, a fireplace, window, door, and series of plates decorating the mantelpiece, the women are lost in their thoughts and show no sign of interaction. The resulting effect is a scene without narrative but filled with a quiet sense of mystery. This feeling is reinforced by the subtle harmony of the patterns of light and color that fall on the room's intriguing architectural elements.

Very little is known about Vrel, not even the location in which he worked. The intimacy and quiet charm of his interior scenes suggest a spiritual kinship with Delft artists Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) and Pieter de Hooch (1629–1684), with whom his work has been confused, but it is unlikely that he resided in Delft. Moreover, Vrel's earliest dated paintings predate both Vermeer and De Hooch's work, indicating that he developed his style and technique independent of them.