Which Vermeer painting at the Met shows a woman holding a water pitcher?

The Vermeer painting at the Met that shows a woman holding a water pitcher is Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.

Johannes Vermeer painted the work around 1662, during the mature phase of his career. A woman stands beside an open window, reaching toward a gilt-silver pitcher and basin as daylight enters the quiet interior. Vermeer makes ordinary domestic objects appear extraordinarily vivid through carefully controlled color, geometry, and light.

The painting belongs to the Met’s Marquand Collection and entered the museum in 1889 as a gift from Henry G. Marquand. It is an oil painting on canvas measuring about 18 by 16 inches. The map, jewelry box, basin, and pitcher suggest a prosperous household, while the vessels were associated with purity and morning toilette.

The chief mix-up is with The Milkmaid, another celebrated Vermeer in the Met’s history, though that painting is in the Rijksmuseum. Girl with a Pearl Earring is also by Vermeer, but it belongs to the Mauritshuis in The Hague.