It represented a man with his left arm raised, suggesting that he was an artist working by an easel. He therefore presumably represents a self-portrait of Vermeer. It is almost certain that Vermeer knew Maes’s work, and he may well have seen The Naughty Drummer. A model, not a maidservantIn 2023 the Met Museum had argued that Vermeer’s painted-over figure might have been a self-portrait, and the latest research now strengthens this theory. It might be more appropriate to entitle Vermeer’s painting The Sleeping Model.