Vermeer's 'Young Woman Standing at a Virginal':

Experience the National Gallery's collection like never before with our new exclusive 'National Treasures' film series. A key strand of the National Gallery's Bicentenary celebrations, we will discover 12 paintings which will be loaned from the Gallery's collection to partner venues throughout the UK, providing expert commentary on these iconic masterpieces. In the seventh instalment of the series, we take a close look at Vermeer's 'Young Woman Standing at a Virginal' (about 1670–2).

Join curator Bart Cornelis to explore the themes of love and harmony in this picture. He describes the context of Vermeer's small oeuvre, many of which capture musical activities inside, as well as another of his paintings in the National Gallery collection which is probably this painting's pendant pair. Bart describes the artist's technique, particularly the use of light and distribution of forms across the composition. Vermeer radically stage managed the scene without fully documenting every object.