The Gallery writes, "[The] subject has turned in her chair and interacts with the viewer through her direct gaze. The effect is unusual spontaneity and informality. The artist’s exquisite use of color is the painting’s most striking characteristic, for both its compositional and its psychological impact. Vermeer concentrated the two major colors in two distinct areas: a vibrant red for the hat and a sumptuous blue for the robe; he then used the intensity of the white cravat to unify the whole."