This ambitious painting is designed to deceive the eye—a trompe-l’oeil. We look through an archway into an inner courtyard of a distinguished mansion with classical statues and a colonnade. In the courtyard, some steps lower, a magnificently dressed woman stands reading a letter. Vistas reveal a cellar full of wine barrels and above it a room with a man sitting at a table.
The painting actually hangs too high. If it were to stand on the ground, with the horizon at eye level, it would seem as if the actual space merges imperceptibly into the painted room. The proportions of the woman, which now seem rather small, would then be correct. The dog greets the visitor with a wagging tail.
For some years Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678) worked in Rembrandt’s workshop; he visited the German states, Rome, and Vienna and spent some years working in London. He then returned to his birthplace of Dordrecht, where he lived until his death. His successful book Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst (Introduction to the Academy of Painting) was published in the year he died. Van Hoogstraten practiced all kinds of genres, but he is best known for his trompe-l’oeil paintings.