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
The Woman with the Spider's Web outcome and when asked by his brother to produce further works for transfer, he declined, writing, "ask another artist". Original cuts of "Woman with the Spider's Web" are in the British Museum, London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, amongst other locations. The image shows a female figure sitting by a dead tree as she solemnly looks into the distance, away from the viewer. Her elbow rests on a broken tree branch, while, according to art historian Albert Boime, "all around her weeds have sprung up (including the sickening thistles, traditional symbols of melancholy)". Many of the overgrown