Comparing Vermeer’s painting techniques in Woman Holding a Balance and A Lady Writing using chemical imaging spectroscopy

Peeking Beneath a Calm Surface

Johannes Vermeer’s paintings look effortlessly serene: quiet rooms, soft light, and smooth, glassy paint. This study shows that beneath that calm surface lies a surprisingly bold and physical painting process. Using modern imaging tools more familiar from astronomy and geology than from art history, scientists examined two famous works, Woman Holding a Balance and A Lady Writing, to see how Vermeer actually put paint on canvas—and how his choices of color and technique shaped the intimate scenes we see today.

Why Two Small Paintings Matter

Vermeer left only about 35 paintings, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington owns two key examples of his so‑called “everyday life” scenes. Earlier research in the 1990s relied on microscopes and a few tiny paint samples taken from the surface. That work suggested Vermeer painted slowly and evenly, building up his images with great care. But those methods could only glimpse the hidden layers through cracks and losses. The new study takes advantage of the museum’s pandemic closure to scan the entire surfaces of both paintings, pixel by pixel, revealing color and material changes across every square millimeter.

New Ways to See Old Paint

The team combined two main types of chemical imaging. Reflectance imaging spectroscopy shines controlled light ranging from visible colors into the near‑infrared onto the painting and records how each spot reflects that light. Because different pigments absorb and reflect light in their own signature ways, these measurements can be turned into maps of where particular colors occur—even in layers hidden below the surface. X‑ray fluorescence imaging, in turn, fires X‑rays at the painting and detects the “glow” of specific chemical elements such as lead, tin, iron, copper, and calcium. Together, these techniques act like a noninvasive CT scan, separating Vermeer’s smooth top layers from rougher underlayers and sketch marks underneath.

How Faces, Fabrics, and Tables Were Built

One focus was on how Vermeer created lifelike skin, clothing, and tablecloths. The women’s faces, for instance, are not shaped by the bright red pigment vermilion, which he used elsewhere, but by careful layering of earth colors. A pale, yellowish mixture sits on top, while a redder underlayer quietly warms the cheeks and lips; fine white pigments soften both. Similar detective work in the blue jacket and tablecloth of Woman Holding a Balance and the yellow jacket and blue cloth in A Lady Writing revealed that Vermeer fine‑tuned color by adding or omitting small amounts of specific pigments. Ultramarine provides a deep blue base; white lightens folds and highlights; a now‑faded yellow “lake” pigment once shifted some of these blues toward green. In the yellow jacket, the artists used two slightly different versions of the same yellow pigment to produce subtly distinct highlights and mid‑tones, helping rounded sleeves and folds feel tangible.

Hidden Energy in the Underlayers

The most surprising result lies in the underpaint—the early, broad stage where Vermeer blocked in colors and light and dark before refining details. Thanks to the new imaging maps, scientists could see underpaint over large areas, not just at isolated damage points. These hidden layers are full of vigorous, visible brushstrokes, quite unlike the polished surfaces on top. In the dark blue tablecloth of Woman Holding a Balance, for example, a mixture rich in black pigment and traces of copper sweeps across the canvas in bold strokes. The copper likely came from a pigment used in tiny amounts as a drying aid, helping the dark paint harden faster so later layers could be added. On the back wall and in the painted pictures within the pictures, similar strong strokes in lead white and earth tones shape bright highlights and deep shadows long before the final coats smoothed everything out.

The Faint Echo of an Initial Sketch

Beneath even the underpaint, Vermeer seems to have laid down a thin, brownish design sketch directly on the prepared canvas. In a few tiny gaps in the paint, this sketch shows through as a translucent brown line. Chemical signals from these spots point to iron‑rich earth pigments mixed with a bit of black. However, because similar earthy colors appear in the ground layer and later paints, it is difficult to map the entire sketch clearly. The study suggests that this sketch was not a neat, continuous diagram but a more broken, painterly guide to major forms and shadows, which may explain why it has proved so elusive.

Rethinking Vermeer’s Touch

Taken together, the findings overturn the idea of Vermeer as a painter who always worked slowly with perfectly even strokes. Instead, he seems to have painted briskly and energetically in the hidden stages, using bold underlayers, special drying additives, and layered earth colors to shape light and form. Only later did he veil this activity with the quiet, flawless surfaces we see today. By showing how much planning and physical work lies beneath two small, calm scenes, the study not only deepens our understanding of Vermeer’s craft but also demonstrates how modern imaging tools can reveal the hidden histories of other treasured paintings without removing a single grain of paint.

Citation: Dooley, K.A., Gifford, E.M., Anchin, D. et al. Comparing Vermeer’s painting techniques in Woman Holding a Balance and A Lady Writing using chemical imaging spectroscopy. npj Herit. Sci. 14, 222 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02420-y

Keywords: Vermeer, painting technique, chemical imaging, underpainting, art conservation