Nothing, ever,” wrote the Dutch painter Jan Veth in 1911, “has been painted in a more distinguished and careful way than this young woman.” The Rijksmuseum owns it, along with two others, The Milkmaid ...

A lot of these artworks show a woman completing a daily task, such as reading a letter or making something out of lace. Vermeer’s works of art are extremely lifelike. In many cases, he created ...