A very, very poor cousin of ISBN: 0894682199. The colors of most plates are significantly distorted by a brownish (sepia) hue changing the original ones quite far, thus rendering the paintings very poorly ruining this book's visual appeal. At least "Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid" on p. 147 is destorted by a bluish hue. The hues are found in ISBN: 0810981939 from Abradale, 1998 edition, but they should be also present in ISBN: 0810917300 from Harry N Abrams the first one was a reprint of. 168 pages in each.

This book is not an easy read, but it does provide wonderful insights into how Vermeer achieved the effects he did. It certainly heightened my appreciation of his work, both in technical and in artistic terms.