This is a common device in Dutch art: the intimate encounter between a single figure and the viewer through some illusionistic enhancement of the picture frame (see also Rembrandt’s portrait of Agatha Bas, CW 162 405352 and Gerrit Dou’s figures at window frames, CW 43, 404621; CW 44, 404803 and CW 45, 404618). The point in all these cases is to suggest that the real world passes into the painted world without interruption. In the examples cited above the figure emerges through a painted frame; in this case she pulls aside a curtain, which similarly seems to lie just within the real frame of the painting. This creates the illusion that her candle (and only source of light) is projecting into our space. The suggestion of a bed-curtain, the fact that this is a night scene and the engaging expression of the young woman make this an encounter which would perhaps have been interpreted erotically. Signed bottom centre: 'G. Schalck.'