How to look at a painting

Start with what you can see, then read the context.

Start with a plain description

Describe what you see: a person, an action, a table, a window. In The Milkmaid, a maid pours milk beside bread.

Choose a detail: a hand, a patch of light or an unexpected colour.

Follow your chosen detail to the next. Compare bright and dark areas, busy passages and quiet ones.

Follow the pour in The Milkmaid, then look at the bread. Its bright dots of paint are called pointillé.

“The figure is looking down” is an observation. “The figure feels lonely” is an interpretation. Which details support that reading?

Leave the meaning open if the image does not support it.

Read the title and gallery notes. Museum sources can help check historical claims.

Look again. Which details make more sense with that context?

Try the same approach with another painting.