To me it is one of the most beautiful things in Holland.

It is, however, in no sense Dutch: the girl is not Dutch, the painting is Dutch only because it is the work of a Dutchman.

No other Dutch painter could compass such liquid clarity, such cool surfaces.

Indeed, none of the others seem to have tried: a different ideal was theirs.

Apart, however, from the question of technique, upon which I am not entitled to speak, the picture has to me human interest beyond description.