Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid at least a degree of intimacy between the two. The painting visits many of Vermeer's usual painterly motifs; in particular his obsession with the inside/outside axis of interior spaces, and through his description of the tiled floor as well as the verticals of the dresses, window frame and back wall painting, his interest in geometry and abstract form. Vermeer had experimented with this painterly device earlier in his career, notably in his "View of Delft", "The Lacemaker" and "The Art of Painting". "Lady Writing" was stolen on 27 April 1974, along with a Goya, two Gainsboroughs and three Rubens from
Fruit and a Jug on a Table the French and Catalan Pyrenees. The arrangement of objects on the table separated from the background, the moderation of colors, and the curvilinear structuring contrasts from the highly chromatic and sharp angular modeling of Metzinger's 1916 works, suggesting this work may have been completed in 1917. Following World War I Metzinger moved increasingly toward a classical treatment of subjects—as Picasso and several other Cubists—in response to both a growing interest in the classicism and pressures of post-war conservatism; a phenomenon that would encompass a wide range of sectors including music, philosophy, literature and the fine-arts. "Fruit and a Jug on