The woman looking at a letter was the motif that was certainly popularized by the painting by Johann Vermeer Woman Reading a Letter, that has been kept in the collection of the Rijksmuseum ever since the museum opened in 1885. If the belief that Petkovšek was an unskilled painter is ignored, the flattened rendering of the figure seems modern. The painting is unified in terms of tone – only the shades of brown, red and white can be seen. As is typical of Petkovšek, it is possible to follow colour transitions through various planes (clothing, arms, face, headscarf). The scene is illuminated from the right side, just as several other works by Petkovšek, such as Washerwomen by the Ljubljanica (NG S 3504) and the Venetian Kitchen (NG S 1748) in which we likewise see red accents. The work can also be ranked with the series of the painter’s small pulses from the countryside: Italian Boy (NG S 304), Girl in the National Costume (NG S 306).