Overview
- Andrew Graham-Dixon argues the sitter is Magdalena van Ruijven, daughter of Vermeer’s Delft patrons Pieter van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt.
- He interprets the image as Magdalena portrayed in the role of Mary Magdalene, linking the reading to the family’s Remonstrant and Collegiant beliefs and dating it to about 1667–68.
- His case cites newly highlighted archival research locating the patrons’ Golden Eagle house on the Oude Delft and connects the work to a 1696 auction listing of a highly praised tronie in ‘antique dress.’
- Several experts dispute the identification and maintain the painting is a tronie—an imagined character study—rather than a portrait of a specific, nameable sitter.
- The claim is outlined in a detailed Times piece and will be expanded in Graham-Dixon’s book, Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, due October 23, with the painting held at the Mauritshuis in The Hague.