Pieter Swillens wrote in 1950 that—if the work was by Vermeer at all—it showed the artist "seeking and groping" to find a suitable mode of expression.

The man in the red jacket, a soldier, is fondling the young woman's breast and dropping a coin into her outstretched hand.

According to Benjamin Binstock, this "dark and gloomy" painting could be understood as a psychological portrait of his adopted family[2]: 81  and does not represent a didactic message.

[2]: 81–82 The painting was in the Waldstein collection in Dux (now Duchcov), then bought in 1741 for August III of Poland, the Elector of Saxony.

It was most probably executed by the notorious forger, Han van Meegeren, who was responsible for producing several fake Vermeers and known to use said resin to harden the paint.