When Deborah Solomon wrote
about the moat of understanding
between our time and Delft,
deftly she demonstrated
that cool domestic bliss
is an old Dutch treat:
woman, so alive yet so inert,
pouring water out the window
on an unseen laughing painter,
the mysterious Vermeer,
who let Ms. Solomon
don the bonnet
for a moment at the virginal --
sweet reverie, pausing benignly,
looks over Deborah's shoulder:
he'll paint you in a moment, Deborah,
please hold still.
CHARLIE FINCH is co-author of Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula (Smart Art Press).
