The Yellow Jacket
A short yellow satin jacket trimmed with white ermine appears in painting after painting — almost certainly a real garment kept in the studio and listed in the inventory taken after Vermeer's death. The same jacket clothes women writing letters, making music, and stringing pearls, a thread of continuity running straight through his mature interiors.
One garment, many rooms
A short jacket of yellow satin, trimmed with white fur, turns up in painting after painting from Vermeer’s mature years. It is almost certainly a real garment kept in the studio: the inventory drawn up after his death in 1675 lists a yellow satin mantle bordered with white fur among the household’s belongings. The same coat clothes women writing, making music, and receiving letters, worn by figures who are plainly meant to be different people.
A thread through the interiors
Seen together, the jacket becomes a way of reading the interiors as a set. In A Lady Writing it falls open over the writer’s shoulders as she looks up from her desk; in Woman with a Pearl Necklace it catches the light as she fastens her jewellery before a mirror.
The fur trim gave Vermeer a soft, broken edge to set against the smooth satin, and the satin gave him a surface to load with the small points of light he loved. The coat is a prop, a marker of a comfortable household, and a private piece of continuity running straight through his work.
