[2] The canvas used was cut from the same bolt as that used for A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals, and both paintings seem to have had identical dimensions originally.

[3][4] The girl is set against a blank wall, probably because the artist sought to eliminate any external distractions from the central image.

As with his The Astronomer (1668) and The Geographer (1669), it is likely that the artist undertook careful study before he executed the work; the art of lacemaking is portrayed closely and accurately.

[1] By rendering areas of the canvas as out-of-focus, Vermeer is able to suggest depth of field in a manner unusual of Dutch Baroque painting of the era[6] but common in his interior works starting as early as 1657 in "Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window".

[1] According to the art historian Lawrence Gowing, The painting is often compared to a 1662 canvas by the Dutch portrait and genre painter Caspar Netscher, which is similarly contemplative in tone.