"Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum since 1885, it was the first Vermeer acquired by the museum.

I don't want to make this a gallery only of a lot of photos of famous paintings, but this is a favorite of mine and I just had to include it. It was a humbling experience to see these world-famous works of art -- pieces that everybody has seen photographs of -- with my own eyes.