oil on canvas · 1889 · v. ostera
the figure is in shadow. the letter is not. light enters from somewhere outside the painting — a window the painter did not include, that lights only the page. we cannot see the figure's face; we are not meant to. we are meant to see what they are seeing.
the letter is unreadable, which is also intentional. ostera said, in a pencilled note on the stretcher, that she had once tried writing a real letter inside it and the painting had collapsed. now it is only the suggestion of writing — a few horizontal smears in soft umber.
field-note one of the unposted letters in the writing-room drawer is folded to the dimensions of this painted page. no one has matched the handwriting.