The Letter Writer (1680)

Dated 1680, "The Letter Writer" is an artwork by Frans van Mieris the Elder. About the period around 1680: The seventeenth century is the age of the Baroque, which favoured dramatic light, movement, and strong emotion in the work of painters in Italy, Spain, and Flanders. In the Dutch Republic, a prosperous middle-class market supported landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and scenes of daily life painted at a modest scale for the home. The catalogue places it in Figurative. The format is portrait. Figurative, a short history: Over the centuries, painters have used the figure to express social standing, narrative, and emotion. Portraits, group scenes, studies of the nude, and pictures of daily life all belong to figurative art.

On onlly.art "The Letter Writer" is sold as a digital download (Digital JPEG + PDF files, 300 DPI). The files are delivered by email after payment, so nothing is shipped: you print locally, choosing the paper, size, and frame yourself. A portrait format suits narrow wall spaces, hallways, and the area beside a door or window. Before printing, compare the proportions of the file with your frame so that nothing important is cropped. Choosing a standard frame size and printing to fit it often saves the cost of custom framing. Screens and printers render colour differently, so a small test print is a sensible way to check tones before committing to a large size. Matte and fine-art papers reduce glare in bright rooms, while glossy papers give stronger contrast and deeper blacks.

Dutch, 1635–1681

If you like the visual language of Frans van Mieris the Elder, explore more works by the same artist in our collection.