Woman in Blue: A profound meditation on art, looking and love

by Douglas Bruton

'You will live beyond one lifetime and beyond even two in the painting he makes of you.'

In the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, there is a painting called Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. Each day a man visits to gaze at it. He is irresistibly drawn to it. Obsessed by it. He studies the painting, in search of resolutions to his past and present loves, and the Woman in Blue studies him back. For there is more to the Woman in Blue than any of the men who gaze upon her realise. She has a story of her own to tell.

With a delicate balance of truth and fiction, past and present, Bruton masterfully explores the intersection between art, artist and viewer, arriving at a profound meditation on love and creation.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Art, Contemporary, Scotland, Historical

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2025

About the author

Douglas Bruton is a Scottish author. He has published in Northwards Now, and in Umbrellas of Edinburgh and Landfill, an anthology of new writing frm the Federation of Writers (Scotland).

Reviews

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen, shhhhh, slow down, take a breath, see, quiet..........................................

"You don't need to shout to be heard"

Bruton has the capacity of slowing down the mad gyrations of the world around us, getting us to focus on the moment and to look and furthermore to see. In this one he looks at Vermeer's ability to catch the moment and have us standing there looking at the moment, quietly, intensely, caught like a moth to a flame.

Looking is a complicated process, how to be able to see, we sometimes have to divest ourselves of all our filters and so catch that moment as it is and then at the same time wondering at all those filters we had to discard and examining once again if we need all of them or if we mix up our list of filters or do without some or add more.

Placing words to a moment confines the moment to those words when the moment was much more or much less or both at the same time or infinitesimal shades of more or less. So saying that reading this took me to a secret quiet place of hidden joy would be saying too much or at the same time too little.

Another Bruton than had me highlighting like mad. If it had been a paper book, it would have shone like a little sun with all the highlighting I did.

An ARC kindly provided by author/publisher (Fairlight Books) via Netgalley

[Constantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary Fiction + Novella

This was a surprisingly brilliant novella. I loved it a lot. A really great surprise, especially since this one is just a novella. The story takes inspiration from Johannes Vermeer’s painting "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" and is set in Amsterdam. The story revolves around a man who becomes deeply engrossed in the painting, making it a daily ritual to visit it at the Rijksmuseum. The story also shares the perspective of the Woman in Blue herself. She opens up about her own story of love, creativity, and the way she’s been captured in art forever.

The novel creates an imaginative story behind a famous painting, giving readers a fresh and interesting way to look at Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. The concept of the book is truly brilliant. It was really nice to see the woman in blue’s perspective too.

The dual narration made the reading much more interesting, as we could understand exactly what both main characters were thinking and how they felt about each other. I greatly enjoyed the author’s writing, and his beautiful prose enhanced the story even more. The main characters are well-developed and can be relatable, too.

"Woman in Blue" is a book I think will really connect with people who are into art, history, and thinking about what it means to be human. It's a must-read if you've ever just stood looking at a painting and felt drawn to it. I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

I should just leave my review there because there's really not much else I can say.

Woman in Blue centres around a writer who has become besotted with the painting by Vermeer. He visits her in the Rijksmuseum every day, falling in love little more each time.

The other strand is the story of Angelieke (who is a fiction of the writer's mind), the woman in the painting. She lives with her mother and another young woman called Katrijn. She and Katrijn plan for her to meet Vermeer and become his latest muse.

The woman in the painting not only has a dialogue with Vermeer but also with the writer who visits her daily.

I'm not going to be able to do this book justice. It has the same quiet beauty as the painting itself. The writing is exquisite. I read this book in two sittings. I did not want to put it down. I want to read it again immediately.

It is stunningly simple and I can't praise it highly enough. Very highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Fairlight Books for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated. I want to read everything this author has written.

[ABCme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiet, gentle, kind, daring are just a few words that come to mind describing this delightful novella.
A Man Studies A Vermeer Painting In Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum vs. The Painting In Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum Observes The Man Studying Her.
What a fantastic concept! And while this exchange takes place in present day, the reader learns what really happened in Vermeer's studio in the late 1600's and how this painting came to be.
I couldn't put it down and the smile never left my face. The twist in the ending is phenominal, what a beauty!

Thank you Netgalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC.

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

" The Woman in Blue looks a little different each time I see her. Like something known and yet still like something new"

Douglas Bruton has created a beautiful mediation upon what it is to love and be loved; different types of love; to be spellbound in love and how love is this wonderful ephemeral feeling that weaves itself around our lives.

The Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Vermeer is s the focus of this slim but powerful novel- certainly a one-sit read for most impact.

Moving between the observations and emotions that bewitch a writer as he visits the painting each day in the Rijksmuseum and also the story of the young woman in the painting- as we witness the story behind the painting and her feelings as Vermeer endeavours to create his masterpiece but also the magical realism from the subject of the painting being very much aware of her modern day viewer and internally responding to his thoughts.

Comparisons could be made to the Girl with the Pearl Earring but that would be to miss the point of the novel- the transformative power of art ; as a passive viewer and for the 'sitter/subject' of a work.

How much time do we really devote to artworks in galleries? How much do we really immerse ourselves in the 'still ' beauty of a piece of art? How do we respond to the emotions that beauty can provoke within?

This is a sublime novel - sensitive, searching and hypnotic. Highly recommended to lovers of historical fiction; lovers of art ; lovers of the exploration of intimacy in the smallest moments

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dreamlike story told from two points of view. One is narrated by a writer who visits Vermeer’s ‘Woman in Blue reading a Letter’ in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The other thread is the girl in the painting who talks both about the man looking at her and also the story of how the painting cam to be in 1663. A short novel about art and creation, quiet, love, thoughts and memory.

[giada · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprising two sided conversation between a writer and a painting, in which Bruton attempts to convey the extreme love for a work of art and the incredible charm and nostalgia it might provoke.

On top of all that, he accompanies the unnamed writer’s musings on Woman Reading A Letter with a fictionalised recreation of Vermeer’s painting process — very reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With The Pearl Earring , at least in subject matter.

The stories and the way they intersect remain shrouded in doubt, both because the historical events cannot be pinpointed with precision, but also because the fantastical elements stray away from the otherwise realistic setting. I found some of these elements to be a little too convenient at times, and put there simply as a way to facilitate the transition between the povs — said transitions also seemed too formulaic at times, but that was clearly done on purpose and it’s simply a matter of personal taste, I won’t begrudge the author for that.

All in all it was a placid novella about the grief of missed connections and what-could-have-beens, and the walls that separate even the closest of people. I don’t know if I truly got the precise feeling the author wanted to portray, but I had a nice time at least.

3.5

Access to the ARC acquired thanks to NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each day a man visits the Rijksmuseum to gaze at the painting Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Vermeer. Only that painting, and for hours on end. Initially we don’t know quite why, and we’re not alone because the museum attendants wonder too. So does his wife. Does the model remind him of someone? Is it just a distraction from other aspects of his life? Is he seeking inspiration for a book? It did our author, after all.

The man’s fascination with the picture and the long hours he spends looking at it, observing it, wondering about small details in it – the significance of the map on the wall behind her or the box of pearls on the table – has an intensity to it, a meditative quality that draws you in. How often nowadays do we sit and look at anything for longer than a few minutes?

Gradually it becomes clear that it is the Woman in Blue who possesses most control over events and that this is not entirely coincidental. She is not the passive artist’s model we might have first thought. In the author’s imagination, her influence extends beyond the picture. She can sense the thoughts of the man viewing the picture, is amused by how often his ideas are wrong and luxuriates in her ability to captivate him as she has Vermeer. She even becomes a little impatient at his attempts to make sense of things in the painting, to discover the artist’s intentions. ‘Just look, like you did at the start,’ she says.’

The book explores the boundaries between reality and illusion in art. The man notes the Woman in Blue casts no shadow on the wall behind her as she would in real life. He recalls reading that in another of Vermeer’s paintings, View of Delft, he shifted buildings a little to suit his composition. The blue bedjacket the Woman in Blue is wearing gives the impression of a gently swollen belly but she is not pregnant. It is Vermeer who, at that moment, is in the process of bringing things into the world: a painting and a child by his wife.

We also see how a painting can live on in other forms, some quite crude or mundane. For example, the man notes that it’s possible to purchase a tea towel with the Woman in Blue on it in the museum gift shop although he’s perturbed that the blue is not exactly the same as that in the painting and fears it will fade after multiple washes.

For a short book, Woman in Blue contains a remarkable number of ideas and I suspect more will come to you, as they did to me, once you’ve finished reading it. Predictably, the book brought to mind Tracy Chevalier’s novel The Girl with the Pearl Earring, also inspired by a Vermeer painting. Playfully, the author has the man complain Vermeer has painted the Woman in Blue’s hair in such a way that it conceals her ear and that ‘had it not he might have painted a wonderful pearl earring there’.

In addition to its inclusion in the title, the author manages to sneak in a few more references to the colour blue. (I like to think this was for the amusement of those who’ve read Blue Postcards.) For example, the man writes a letter to the Woman in Blue on blue lined paper and is particular in using a blue pen. He buys his wife a blue Delft tile with a blue tulip on it.

Woman In Blue is a delightfully clever novel that will make you think about the relationship between artist, subject and viewer next time you visit a gallery or look at a painting.

‘That is what great art does: it allows the viewer in and the viewer brings something new to the painting, something of their own story and life and love.’

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella about the Vermeer painting 'Woman in Blue Reading a Letter' which hangs in the Rijksmuseum.

It is a calm and small painting, but an intriguing one, and Douglas Bruton lifts out those elements and builds a narrative around it based on the alternating stories of a man visiting the painting in the museum and the woman herself back in 17th century Delft.

The man develops something of an obsession for the painting (or better, the woman in it) and has bought a season ticket so as to see it every day. In alternating chapters, the woman tells us how she ended up modelling for Johannes Vermeer.

I enjoyed the novella a lot, it is interesting and has a calm tone befitting the painting. I was somewhat uncomfortable both with the liberty Bruton takes in inventing history and with the man's obsession with a painted woman... But ok, I guess if it results in a good book there is nothing against that...

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this short, wonderful novel at the perfect time - just a couple of days after a visit to Amsterdam. While I was there I visited the Rijksmuseum and joined the big crowd of visitors who shuffled along in front of the three paintings by Vermeer, including “Woman in Blue Reading a Letter”, on which this story is based.

In the acknowledgements at the end of the book the author thanks his wife for taking him to see the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam in May 2023, “without that experience this book would not/could not have been written.”
What I admire in the craft of the writer is his ability to create such a well woven story from the simple viewing of a picture. Presumably he was moved enough by what he saw to inspire this story. The woman wearing a blue bed coat is both beautiful and enigmatic, and Bruton has highlighted these qualities perfectly.

Before I talk about the story, let me give you my own observations on the painting itself. As with many of Vermeer’s paintings, there is a very simple composition. The scene is lit by a window to the left, although in this picture we do not see the window itself. A young woman in a brilliant blue bed coat stands facing the window, engrossed in the contents of a letter she is reading. Her lips are slightly parted, as though she is speaking the words of the letter as she reads. Her hair is tied up on her head, revealing the delicate line of her neck. She stands at a table, which holds what looks like another letter, a string of pearls and a ribbon. There are two chairs at the table, and behind her on the wall is a large map. All the attention falls on the letter she is holding and the large blue coat, which seems to hint that she is pregnant. Many women’s dresses seemed to give this impression, so it is by no means certain. We will never know, but Bruton has used the uncertainty in his novel.

The premise of the book is very simple. In one set of chapters we hear from ‘A Man in Amsterdam’, a contemporary writer who secretly visits the enigmatic painting every day in order to stand silently before it. He buys a season ticket to the museum and visits everyday, but he does not tell his wife, either about the tickets or the visits.
The other chapters in the book are narrated by ‘Woman in Blue’, the picture itself responding in modern times to the frequent visits by the writer, but also taking us directly back to the time when the woman posed as a model for Vermeer. The artist is never referred to as Vermeer, but always as Meneer Johannes Reijniersz. The model tosses up each day whether the artist loves her or not, trying to interpret his behaviour and the way he treats her. We watch the tension of days with hardly a word spoken, and what that might mean.
At the same time, we watch the contemporary man wrestle with hiding his love of the painting from his wife. Although she never looks up from her letter, the woman in blue can read the thoughts of the visiting writer, she knows what is happening in his life and what he means by his sly approaches. She criticises his love, or lack of it, all the time.

Sometimes I go to the gallery late in the day. Something blue in the city has perhaps distracted me. There is a shop near to the Rijksmuseum on Nieuwe Spiegelstraat - Kramer, I think it is called - and in its windows are hundreds of antique blue Delft tiles. They have been carefully removed from the walls of old houses and now fetch a high price. I stop at these windows some days. The background of these tiles was, I think, once white but is now a step away from white. This is the result of age. But it is the blue that gives the tiles their name - blue lions, blue windmills, blue tulips. That blue is still blue…
On my way home I stop at the shop selling blue Delft tiles. The light in the shop is thin and the air is dry and my breath tastes of dust. I once smelled the pages of an old library book - something musty, with vanilla notes and a faint taste of dark chocolate. The air in the shop is the same.

Although I was unaware of the reference in the book at the time, my wife and I walked back from the Rijksmuseum along Nieuwe Spiegelstraat and stopped to look at the old Delft tiles in an antique shop that smelt just the same. To feel that link in the story was perfect, and to smell the same smells, inhale the dust and balk at the price of a tile, was all part of a shared experience between us and the book, and helps to make it feel personal and special.

This is my third book by Douglas Bruton, I read ‘Blue Postcards’ a month ago and ‘With or Without Angels’ a year ago. They are all perfect for anyone who loves to be immersed in both art and words.

[Mairead Hearne (swirlandthread.com) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘And the young woman in his picture – already he thinks of the painting as ‘his’ – who might she be? That he does not yet know.’

Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton publishes today, February 20th, with Fairlight Books and is described by author Victoria Mackenzie as ‘a profound meditation on art, looking and love’. I only discovered the stunning writing of Douglas Bruton last year when I received a copy of his 2024 Hope Never Knew Horizon, a book which I said was a real piece of literary magic not to be missed. It’s really difficult to pin down exactly what it is that makes Douglas Bruton such a special writer. His unique style captures something almost ethereal and with both books being less than 200 pages, they really are quite perfectly formed and compact reads.

Vermeer’s ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’ (1662-1665) is the central focus of this tale and is also the artwork featured on the cover. ‘A Man in Amsterdam’ is an anonymous writer who goes to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on an almost daily basis. This pilgrimage leads him to this Vermeer painting where he closely studies the finer details while contemplating his own life and his marriage. As he considers his actions and how he came to be here, he starts to imagine who the woman is the painting is. Has she a name? What kind of life did she lead? But as the days pass his thoughts deepen about certain aspects of the painting – the letter in her hand, the map behind her, the paraphernalia on the table in front of her, her fashion, her hairstyle and so on. As he reaches his own conclusions he slowly starts to create a persona for her. He gives her a name and lets his imagination roam. He loses track of time and, when back home, seems to have little to say to his own wife. He is almost living an alternate existence with his days blending as he spends more and more time in her company at the Rijksmuseum.

‘I do not know at this stage where this is leading me, what it is that I am moving towards. Sometimes it feels as though I am pushing the whole story forwards; sometimes it feels as though I am being pulled along, being led toward something...’

Woman in Blue is the voice given to the artist’s model. Douglas Bruton gives her a platform to share her story, explaining how she crossed paths with Vermeer and providing an explanation for certain elements of the portrait. Her story is fascinating but it is her view of the anonymous man that is extra special. The narrative structure that Douglas Bruton uses provides a masterful shift across chapters as we are seamlessly carried back & forth between past and present. This unorthodox relationship between both narrators is portrayed with an exquisite tenderness and understanding.

In many ways Woman in Blue is quite a simple tale yet it is also very much an enriching and soulful experience. There is a lyricism to the language, incorporating a stillness, a silence, a moment of calm in our chaotic society. A very original and meditative piece of writing Woman in Blue is another extraordinarily ingenious read from Douglas Bruton with each sentence carefully crafted into a moving and profound exploration of human relationships and love. Intimate, pure and mesmeric, Woman in Blue is a book I highly recommend to all.

‘There is something more in this painting, and something that is not easily explained by the absence of a man’

[Mahin · Rating 1 out of 5]

the premise was so exciting. conversations between an observer and a painting? sign me up!

Woman in Blue delivered that promise. but i was not a fan of the execution.

i was expecting something in the style of The Picture of Dorian Gray, with combined ruminations on philosophy and art. but instead, after finishing the book, i was reminded of the second act of The Vegetarian by Han Kang—a disturbing portrayal of men using women for art, the women having superficial agency in the matter, and men's hypocrisy towards their wives.

the writing had so much potential. the descriptions were strong. there were a few gems here and there about the relationship between ideas and their execution. but everything else was kept surface-level. instead of exploring something further, it was repeated over and over without anything new (e.g. every time his wife asked him if he was writing, he kept mentioning how writers don't share their ideas and never went beyond that statement) . speaking of repetition, the word "love" is so overused, it lost whatever meaning it had.

the female characters were my least favourite part of the book. the twist at the end did little to repair the damage for me. they had no story or nuance and were passive tools in the life of the men. this could've easily been fixed by showing what they do every day outside of their discussions about the painter and the painting. it's a stereotypical set: boring or pregnant wives, superficially naive and pure maidens that are worshipped by the bored husbands. there is a minor attempt at subverting this, but that too is surface-level.

the assault was handled too passively. nobody stopped anyone. nothing went on in the head of the woman even though she was disgusted.

the historical context was lacking. i get that the focus was on the painter and his work, but nowhere were there any suggestions in his mannerisms about the life of that century. it might as well had not been a time jump at all. the incessant use of "he loves me, he loves me not" also added to this problem . it stuck out like a sore thumb in the deeply reflective atmosphere of the book and whatever gap between the past and present it was meant to bridge was lost for me.

the reconciliation was abrupt and unnatural. the men freely cheated on their wives (who remained naive and passive as ever) and the change in their thoughts (brought by the influence of the art and their understanding of it) was unbelievable.

the premise was so exciting. conversations between an observer and a painting? sign me up!

Woman in Blue delivered that promise. but i was not a fan of the execution.

i was expecting something in the style of The Picture of Dorian Gray, with combined ruminations on philosophy and art. but instead, after finishing the book, i was reminded of the second act of The Vegetarian by Han Kang—a disturbing portrayal of men using women for art, the women having superficial agency in the matter, and men's hypocrisy towards their wives.

the writing had so much potential. the descriptions were strong. there were a few gems here and there about the relationship between ideas and their execution. but everything else was kept surface-level. instead of exploring something further, it was repeated over and over without anything new (e.g. every time his wife asked him if he was writing, he kept mentioning how writers don't share their ideas and never went beyond that statement) . speaking of repetition, the word "love" is so overused, it lost whatever meaning it had.

the female characters were my least favourite part of the book. the twist at the end did little to repair the damage for me. they had no story or nuance and were passive tools in the life of the men. this could've easily been fixed by showing what they do every day outside of their discussions about the painter and the painting. it's a stereotypical set: boring or pregnant wives, superficially naive and pure maidens that are worshipped by the bored husbands. there is a minor attempt at subverting this, but that too is surface-level.

the assault was handled too passively. nobody stopped anyone. nothing went on in the head of the woman even though she was disgusted.

the historical context was lacking. i get that the focus was on the painter and his work, but nowhere were there any suggestions in his mannerisms about the life of that century. it might as well had not been a time jump at all. the incessant use of "he loves me, he loves me not" also added to this problem . it stuck out like a sore thumb in the deeply reflective atmosphere of the book and whatever gap between the past and present it was meant to bridge was lost for me.

the reconciliation was abrupt and unnatural. the men freely cheated on their wives (who remained naive and passive as ever) and the change in their thoughts (brought by the influence of the art and their understanding of it) was unbelievable.

also, the constant speculation about whether the woman was pregnant or not made me uncomfortable. it's a valid observation that did not need to be stretched so far. the line that goes "her delicate fingers show that she could not be pregnant" is insensitive and out of touch, but hey, that's a man's pov for ya.

overall, a miss for me.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that Douglas Bruton’s previous novel, Hope Never Knew Horizon, was outstanding and his new novel, Woman in Blue, is just as good.

I really enjoyed the structure of this novel. It is told in alternating chapters by an unnamed ‘Man in Amsterdam’ and the ‘Woman in Blue’. The man in Amsterdam is captivated, some might say obsessed, by Vermeer’s painting Woman Reading a Letter which hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, somewhere I visited myself just last year. He visits every day, spending some time looking closely at the painting and imagining a life for its subject. In the chapters from the perspective of the ‘Woman in Blue’, we hear about the time she spent sitting for the portrait, what was happening in her life in those months but also hear her thoughts about the ‘man in Amsterdam’ who she knows visits daily.

I was fascinated with just how much detail the man in Amsterdam could see in the painting and by what I learned about Vermeer’s art from the book. I felt there was a focus on what art can mean to different people, how everyone can interpret a painting differently, how each viewer has a different image and idea in their head. It seems that the author takes a lot of inspiration from paintings, In his last novel, George Frederic Watts’ painting Hope was very significant while art and paintings also feature in his earlier novels. Famously of course, Vermeer’s work also inspired Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Writing inspired by art, art inspiring writing.

The book features two men who don’t really connect with their wives. Both Vermeer and the man in Amsterdam’s wives are pregnant. There’s been speculation that the subject of the painting might also have been pregnant. It seemed to me that a strong theme of the book was the idea of creation. There is the creation of a child of course but also the creation of a painting. It is quite amazing to think that a painting was an idea which existed merely in someone’s head but once committed to canvas is there for posterity and open to interpretation. Everyone sees it differently. The connection between artist and sitter, between art and those who appreciate art is captured perfectly in this novel.

Woman in Blue is another beautifully written, compelling and deeply engaging novel from Douglas Bruton. It really made me think about the way I look at art, about how it’s created and about what it can mean. If you haven’t already discovered Bruton’s writing, I really encourage you to seek out one of his books and enjoy his poetic and thought-provoking style for yourself.

[Rosie Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woman In Blue is a story inspired by Vermeer’s painting entitled ‘Woman In Blue Reading A Letter’. Set out in alternating chapters, the story follows ‘A Man In Amsterdam’ who visits the painting almost every day and secondly ‘Woman In Blue’ who is both the woman in the portrait and the young lady who posed for the painting.

This might sound confusing but Bruton chose to make the portrait a character too—so you get an in-depth and layered arrangement of thoughts and actions. There is the study of aspects of the picture from the man’s thoughts with his ideas about various elements such as painting styles and unanswered questions about the composition.  Then there is a little mystical part where the painting watches the watcher. Finally there are the views of the painting’s model with snippets about her everyday life, loves and plans.

Just as Vermeer painted a masterpiece, Bruton’s way with words and his gentle approach to the story add details similar to the way that an artist mixes his paints and uses delicate brush strokes to create his finished piece.

This is a gentle, peaceful tale which builds a subtle story and is a pleasant way to pass a few hours of reading.

[soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly exceptional book, Woman in Blue is a love story that thrives in its subtlety and simplicity, evoking remarkable emotional depth. It walks the line between historical fiction and art writing, exploring the nuances of perception and the development of understanding of the painting, only achieved by the pure devotion of the man who visits it everyday. It is beautifully crafted and cleverly executed; at no point did I anticipate the ending. Having said all this, the true shining feature of this book is the quiet that permeates each page. It is beautiful and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in subtle literary fiction and art.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s clearly something about the paintings of Johannes Vermeer that inspires novelists; first, Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With a Pearl Earring and now Douglas Bruton’s excellent Woman in Blue. This is the second of Bruton’s books I’ve read, the first being 2021’s Blue Postcards and apart from the shared word in the title (Bruton certainly seems to like the colour blue!) and the shared theme of art and artists, I found this one very different in style and structure.

The novel begins in the present day with our unnamed narrator, referred to only as ‘a man in Amsterdam’, visiting the Rijksmuseum to look at a painting. Just one painting, which he has become so obsessed with that he barely notices any of the others. The painting is Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and the narrator returns to the museum day after day to study the colours and the composition, but most of all just to spend time in the woman in blue’s company and to imagine the human being who inspired the picture. He’s transfixed by this particular painting for its own sake, but also because the woman reminds him in subtle ways of both his wife and another woman he once loved.

In 17th century Delft, we meet the woman in blue herself – or rather, the young woman who sits for Vermeer as he paints her portrait. Her chapters alternate with the present day ones, slowly building up a history of the woman in blue, her life in Delft and her relationship with the artist. In reality, the true identity of the sitter has never been confirmed (Vermeer’s wife, Catharina Bolnes, has been suggested as a likely candidate, but it seems there’s no actual evidence to prove it), so Bruton has the freedom to create his own fictional story for the woman, whom he names Angelieke.

Although the book is set in two different time periods and narrated by two different characters, the lines dividing the two are blurred. Angelieke is a real woman in 1663, but in the modern day sections, she’s aware that she is a painting in a museum and that the male narrator comes to see her every day. She looks forward to his visits and feels a connection with him, just as he feels one with her. This is not the first novel to give a painting a mind of its own (I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons does the same and I’m sure there must be others) but I really liked the way Bruton handles that element of the story, giving it a dreamlike feel and merging the two narratives so that they don’t feel too separate or disconnected.

With it being a real painting rather than a fictional one, it’s easy to google it so you can refer to the picture itself as you read. The narrator’s observations, made during his repeated viewings, helped me to see things in the painting that I probably wouldn’t have noticed for myself. With each chapter, he finds new details to study and focus on – the map on the wall, the letter in the woman’s hand, the blue bed jacket she’s wearing and the question of whether or not she could be pregnant. At times, Bruton returns to a theme he also touched on in Blue Postcards: the idea that a painting offers something different to each individual who views it and that the viewers themselves can almost ‘become’ part of the painting:

What I like about the painting – one of the many things I like – is how cleverly the artist has included me in it and made me complicit in the looking. It is an intimate and private moment and Vermeer intrudes on it without at all breaking it, and we – Vermeer and me – stand silent, breath held, just looking at this young woman turned in on herself.

For a short book – a novella at 144 pages – there’s so much packed into it that I’ve probably only scratched the surface in this review. I would recommend Woman in Blue to anyone who loves art, but even if you don’t, there’s still a lot here to enjoy.

[Moana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the ACR.

A quiet and soothing book full of musings about love and art. This book was really insightful in how it treated the art of looking and how much we can learn if we only know how to look closely.

3.5 stars rounded up!

[Adrienne Blaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you haven’t been brought to tears by a painting, I highly recommend looking at more art in person. Museums and galleries are particularly awkward spaces to experience strong emotions, but it’s worth it.

In this novel a modern-day man in Amsterdam visits the Rijksmuseum to see the same 17th Century painting every day, The Woman in Blue. Meanwhile, the subject of the painting watches him, watching her without breaking her pose or the fourth wall. She also tells the story of how the artist Vermeer watched her and made her his model for the now famous artwork. In this way, she serves as a bridge across time between two creative men who project their own meanings onto her.

I was curious how this novel would deal with the male gaze, and while there’s a twist in the end that subverts the centrality of men in women’s stories, the writing is still mainly a meditation on men’s thoughts and feelings about women as they grapple with marriage and fatherhood.

I received a digital advance reader copy from Fairlight Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[kp_readss · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Woman in Blue je pricica o doticnoj gospodji sa slike, autoru doticne slike - cuvenom Vermeer-u i jednom posmatracu slike koji opsednuto posecuje muzej da bi gledao u zenu u plavom.

Prica ima interesantnu premisu, ali tu i ostaje. Komentari i posmatranje same slike su mi se dopali, i bilo je par lepih emotivnih pasusa, medjutim autor se mnogo trudio da to sve bude poeticno pa nekako zvuci malo priglupo. POV same zene je dosta losiji u odnosu na muski stranu a ima tu i jedan NEPOTREBAN lgbtq+ momenat koji mi je bio toooooootalno nerealan.

Preporucujem ako ste ljubitelji likovne umetnosti ili samog Vermeer-a, a i novela je u pitanju pa ima manje od 200 strana.

Zahvaljujem NetGalley-u i Fairlight Books na ARC-u u zamenu za iskrenu recenziju.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johannes Vermeer's most acclaimed painting is widely considered to be “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. Often referred to as the “Mona Lisa of the North”.  Another highly acclaimed Vermeer painting is “The Milkmaid”. However, the main protagonist in this read is a man who becomes obsessed with the painting of “Woman Reading a Letter”. He visits the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam every day while his wife is at work and with his constant visits causes some concern amongst security and other museum staff; so in order to put their concerns to rest he begins taking notes. He is so obsessed with this young woman in the blue smock, or is it a bed jacket? To some women, it could be described as a maternity over jacket that until only in the past fifty years would have been the mode of dress for pregnant women. He whispers to the young woman in the painting, he leans too close, almost touching the artwork, returning every day to almost repeat every gesture as well as removing his wedding ring. He reveals some of this to his wife including some past interaction by her that was part of the attraction.

The other protagonist takes the reader to the time of the painting where the young beautiful woman, of an impoverished and simple background has become a model for an artist. She lives with her mother and a friend but from whom the real relationship to the friend is not apparent. However, as the artwork progresses, she begins to reveal her intentions. As is the case with continuous births of the times, the artist's wife is about to give birth to another child. With the artist's sexual desires deprived, the opportunity for the young model is ripe for her picking and so she does.

I received an advanced copy of this book for my impartial review and comment. Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers

[Bethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woman in Blue
By Douglas Bruton
Chapter xii Page 49
Woman in Blue xii

::| It was a test of sorts, Katrijn asking that.
We were sitting at the table in the Kitchen. My mother was not in the house; she had finished her scrap of lace and had gone to make delivery of it to a woman in a grand house near Prins Hendrikkade. It would be a collar to a cotton blouse. I had taken the handkerchief out from under my pillow and laid it on the table; with some ceremony, I peeled back the four corners of the handkerchief to reveal the money inside.
Katrijn began counting the money, stacking the coins into neat and regular towers. She left her question hanging in the air between us. I left it too, until she had finished counting.
“There was a day when I did not know the name of Meneer Johannes Reijniersz. A day when he was nothing to me and I was nothing to him. When the painting is finished, it will be like that day again.”
I do not think Katrijn trusted those words. I do not know if I did. |::


Johannes Vermeer has asked Angelieke to sit for him after seeing her in the street. He just knew she would be the perfect model for his next painting.. Or was he fooled into painting Angelieke because it is what she wanted? After all, what could be better than anyone intimate setting as perfect as posing for a painting. There is something revealing about expert eyes able to study the very core of your soul, to see the imperfections of your human body and translate it onto paper for people to love, see, cherish and talk about for years to come.
It is what she wanted.
It is what he wanted.

What could be simpler?

‘Woman in Blue reading a letter’ is actually a painting by the artist Johannes Vermeer, something i didn't know until I read this book. I was fascinated by the way the story evolved over time and the small surprises that came from the most simplest of places. It was beautiful, enchanting, and very hard to put down! I loved it. The way it was creatively written was all new to me, and not only did I discover a new author but a painting that is now going to change the way I see it forever.


Thank you so much to Douglas Bruton, Fairlight Books, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and relay my honest feedback.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful “wee book” (as the author describes it) is a profound study of the love of art, the art of love, and the intersection of the two. It alternates between present day Amsterdam and mid-seventeenth century Delft. In Delft, a young girl poses for Johannes Vermeer for his painting “Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.” In the present day, a man has become obsessed with the painting, visiting it every day and imagining what the girl would say if he could talk with her. But in the dream-like meditation of his art, she is listening to him. Does he love me? Love me not? Sometimes the girl thinks of Vermeer himself, sometimes the man who sits before her three centuries later.

I am a profound believer in the power of art to reach into our souls and change us. This book describes that process - while at the same time questioning whether the man’s obsession with the painting and the woman’s thoughts during the painting process represent love, or something else. Certainly getting to know a painting intimately can have a strong effect - one that the word “love” can’t entirely encompass. Burton writes about this beautifully, drawing us in to the process of art and its resulting effects on human love.

I recommend this book to anyone who has had the experience of becoming involved with a work of art, and for those who have not.

Many thanks to Fairlight and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this extraordinary book in exchange for my honest review.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the concept of this novella and the writing isn’t bad, but it felt quite shallow and didn’t really hit the mark that I think it was trying to communicate. The tension between fact and fiction, the reality of art and how we imagine its stories is certainly present but with such a light touch that means you’re not really left thinking or feeling much, other than a slight frustration that it could’ve delved deeper into the thought up psyche of these characters.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Bit dull. Good ending.

[Isabelle Kennedy-Grimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premise and the style. It was, however, a little too repetitive for me. I also floated between feelings of warmth and discomfort throughout. I am left feeling more satisfied than I thought I would at the outset. I also found that the writer would make really beautiful and subtle connections between things or embed really powerful subtext, but then explain it to the reader straight afterward. I could have done without the explanations.

[Genevieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating premise (love researching art/dutch golden age), not too hooked on the execution though? Took me quite a while to just get through this novella

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story with a lot of layers. I loved the alternating chapters/POV between present-day and the past at the time of Vermeer. The story features a man in present day who visits the Rijksmuseum on a nearly daily basis to vie and reflect on Vermeer's Woman in Blue painting. He's a bit obsessed. Then we hear the perspective of the woman in the painting - how she met Vermeer, her experience being the subject of the painting, and even her observations (from the painting) of the man in present-day who observes her.
There was a bit of an odd twist at the end. The story is atmospheric, and if you've been to Amsterdam and visited the Rijksmuseum, you'll appreciate stepping back into that environment and thinking about the details in Vermeer's work.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book from Fairlight Books via NetGalley for which my thanks.

A wonderful, gentle read about art, love, and life, going into art and its creation on the one side mirrored by the entirely different but equally meaningful relationship between viewer/spectator and piece of art which adds its own layers to the work, Woman in Blue (2025) was the first Douglas Bruton novella I read but had me realise soon enough why he is held in such high regard by fellow readers and bloggers.

Set around Vermeer’s ‘Woman Reading a Letter’ (1663), a seemingly simple painting, yet one with much detail and beauty, in a brief prologue Vermeer gets sudden inspiration for making the painting, one of those late-night ideas that ‘are sometimes as fleeting and gossamer-thin as breath’ and which ‘ … when the bells of bells of Nieuwe Kerk ring out across the city to announce it is morning, all memory of the young woman wearing blue will have evaporated in the rush and run of things...’, leading Vermeer to immediately sketch his idea before it vanishes, sceptical though he remains about it. The Woman in Blue comes into being of course, and is resident in the Rijksmuseum (as she is in real-life) when an unnamed man from Amsterdam comes to see her; he admits almost at the start that he has, as far as this is possible, fallen in love with her and purchased a season ticket just to come spend time with her. And that he does in the book, on each trip reflecting on the painting, her beauty, as also the finer details, of which something new becomes apparent to him on each visit, but also on the woman herself, who she might have been, what the letter might have been which she appears to be reading, and much else. These reflections also set off reflections on himself, his life, his loves, the first love whom the Woman in Blue reminds him of and his wife with whom his relationship is somewhat strained. He also forms connections, some fleeting, others also short-lived but deeper with others who view the painting, most with the same awe and love as he does.

His strange (perhaps, it is strange) behaviour is noticed, of course by the museum staff from the security-man onwards, who wonder at his motives—is he writing something about it, Vermeer’s work or is there something else; perhaps he is just ‘mad’, or something more sinister? But there is another who notices his visits too, the Woman in Blue herself as we learn in the parallel sets of chapters which unfold alongside our unnamed man’s. The Woman in Blue is well aware of his visits and that she is their purpose, even when he tries to indicate otherwise or be casual about it. She can gauge too, the feelings in his heart, the questions he is grappling with on each visit. Alongside, she begins to narrate her own story, how she came to be the model for the Woman Reading a Letter, Vermeer’s requirements of her, and of course the days unfolding in the studio as the painting proceeds. Here the story is as much about the creation of the painting and its nuances as about the relationship that develops between artist and model/muse, and each of their feelings and intentions in the process.

As both threads play out, quietly, with seemingly little happening, we see that there are things are play, some hinted at but keeping us guessing while others with us having no idea at all; we are kept engrossed, ourselves also reflecting on a lot of what the characters consider.

For a novella-length book, and one that seems to have little going on, there is so much this book conveys and that too, beautifully. It has us reflecting on art, on how our viewing of it, much like when we read a book, brings something more to the work, giving it a meaning and perception unique to us—beyond or perhaps even separate from what the artist may have intended in making it. As a reader becomes part of the conversation with a book, so a spectator does with art

That is what great art does: it allows the viewer in and the viewer brings something new to the painting, something of their own story, and life and love

As the man in Amsterdam looks at the Woman in Blue again and again, sometimes from a distance, at others up close, he identifies different details, some in common with others of Vermeer’s works, some unique to this—the centre of interest (as he works it out), the position of her hands, the details of her hair, the scene around. His curiosity is aroused too as to who she might have been, and as to the questions more commonly surrounding the painting like whether she was indeed pregnant or it was unlikely. But besides these aspects of both appreciating art and art piquing our interest in going deeper, beneath the surface, what stands out most is the emotions the piece evokes in our man from Amsterdam and the facets of his life and love it gets him to reflect on. It is a journey of a sort, an obsession, even, but where is it leading him?

The emotions are also what stand out on the other side of the coin in the tracing of the story of the (fictional I think) woman who modelled for this painting; her life as it is, in contrast to that being led by someone of Vermeer’s stature and reputation (not that he was by any means very wealthy), as also the relationship that develops between the two—from the strangeness in the artist’s mind and conduct to the young woman’s own thoughts and hopes—much of it understood more than said, and yet much left hanging and some indeed kept secret, not revealed to the other.

There are too plenty of details about the making of the painting, the use of Lapiz for the blue, an extraordinary, even astonishing choice for lapiz was usually reserved for depicting the Madonna alone, mentions and some insight into the work of the Camera Obscura, a device I first heard of from a friend and am still curious to explore further; the setting of the scene and the process of translation from vision to reality.

A truly lovely read which also packs in a few surprises and confirms one doesn’t need too many words to say a lot!

4.5 stars rounded off

[Emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publishing date: 20.02.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY) 

Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC. My opinions are my own. 


TLDR: A man visits a painting every day and falls in love with the subject and the art itself. On the other side, the subject internally converses with her admirer and reflects on the time she was posing for said painting. 3 stars


An unnamed man visits a painting in his local museum every day. He falls in love with the painting, more specifically the subject. On the other side the subject converses with him, reflects on his affections, and wonders if he truly loves her. She also tells us of the time she was posing for the painting, and the relationship she had with the artist. 


The characters here are deeply flawed and hypocritical. The men talk about love, but they love two people. The woman also speaks of love, but more superficially or like something she can use. No one was directly likeable or dislikeable, more like people I simply disagree with. 


Pacing is strange. I have no concept of how much time has actually passed, or exactly when the different POV's take place. It is a slow paced book writing style-wise, but I think it is moving quickly timeline-wise. 


The story itself is strange and obsessive. These people are all obsessed with each other, but the focus is mostly on the woman. So it is a character centric story. Not much happens, really. 


I did not enjoy the way they talked about the woman. "Out of shape", "distant", they way they phrased whether or not she was pregnant. It felt icky. It felt like they viewed her as a lesser being. 

The woman herself also has a few problems. A spine first of all would be nice. Something happens where she is disgusted, but does nothing. She seems so conflicted with the things she does and can't make up her mind properly. There is also a lot of flip-flopping of "loves me, loves me not". I found it a little tiring and juvenile. 


The writing is beautiful, but maybe a little boring and "compact". Separating it a little more would make for a more comfortable reading experience. That might just be me. 


Audience is adult. Targeted at people who enjoy themes of obsession, moral dilemmas, and a little surrealism. 


I am giving this 3 stars. I enjoyed the premise, but not the execution. It was a little hard to read with the blocks of text on every page. But if it seems interesting I would recommend you try it. 

[Lady Fancifull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meditation upon Woman In Blue Reading a Letter, by Johannes Vermeer

This short book made my heart yearn so much for something I couldn’t even name. Perhaps just for the very preciousness and intensity of every present moment, and wanting to hold each moment fast, drinking it in, truly noticing.

In many ways that IS one of the numinous themes. This is a very short, remarkably easy read, but it is absolutely one to savour, linger, and not to rush over. Its quality is one of attentiveness, presence, reflection and intense waiting for revelation

The subject is both a painting – Vermeer’s Woman In Blue, and the very power of art to take us into deeper experience than we know

There are two narrators in the book. One is the model herself, and the experience she has of being painted, her relationship with the artist, and his relationship with his art, his life and vision, and her.

The second narrator is a writer in the present day, who visits the Rijksmuseum where the painting hangs, every day. He is obsessed by the painting itself, the model, and the whole quality and energy, which goes well beyond the technicalities and analysis of the artist’s world. Surely, what we, the viewer, pick up from great art is something indefinable about the essence of the time and place and personality of artist, subject and the space between them.

Bruton takes this into the presence and personality of the woman herself, imagining how her quality, her being, her individuality somehow reaches into the present, so, just as we invest and sense into the life of the model, so she can sense into, and make judgements about those who hold her in their gaze.

So……….Bruton is making the reader think about how much we create the works of art we look upon, the books we read. We do not purely passively receive we invest them with our own meaning. And I guess the best works of art, the best writing, allows the viewer, the reader the space for their own soul to give and receive to and from the artwork.

And, most of all, we are made to think about love, in all of its complexity, and all of its innocence

I’m surprised and stunned by this book. I did not expect to be so wonderfully overwhelmed by something so very gentle and patient.

I’m delighted to find Douglas Bruton has many books to his name, and I will have more to explore