The Glass of Wine

Johannes Vermeer painted The Glass of Wine around 1660, depicting a gentleman offering wine to a seated woman in a sun-filled interior. The stained glass window casts colored light across the scene, creating Vermeer's signature atmosphere of quiet intimacy.

Vermeer mastered the depiction of light falling through windows onto domestic scenes. The woman's tilted glass and the gentleman's attentive posture suggest a gentle courtship ritual common in Dutch Golden Age genre painting. Only 34 paintings are attributed to Vermeer today. This work hangs at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.