"Further evidence for believing it is a self-portrait has been provided to the Met Museum team by The Art Newspaper, which pointed to a similar example in a Dutch painting of the period: Nicolaes Maes's The Naughty Drummer (Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, around 1655), which was completed just a year or so before the Vermeer. Don't wake the baby! Maes depicts a mother scolding her young son, whose noisy drumming is waking up the sleeping infant."
"In A Maid Asleep, Vermeer eventually overpainted the artist reflected in the mirror. Instead, he added what appears to be a smaller mirror with no visible reflection, along with a table and the edge of a window. One can only speculate on the reason for the change, but Vermeer may well have wanted to focus more attention on the woman, without the distraction of the reflected man."
"Recent research by the scientific team at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York shows that Vermeer overpainted a figure set within the painting A Maid Asleep (1656-57), in the background of the composition. It represented a man with his left arm raised, suggesting that he was an artist working by an easel. The man appears to be painting with his left hand, so he is probably reflected in a framed mirror (rather than depicted in a portrait hanging on a wall)."
Scientific analysis at the Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed that Vermeer overpainted a background figure in A Maid Asleep (1656–57). The original image depicted a man with his left arm raised, suggesting an artist at an easel. The man appears to be painting with his left hand and is therefore likely a reflection in a framed mirror, interpreted as a self-portrait, though facial features remain too indistinct to confirm. The Art Newspaper identified a comparative example in Nicolaes Maes's The Naughty Drummer (c.1655), which shows a mirror reflecting an artist. Vermeer later replaced the reflection with a smaller non-reflective mirror, a table, and a window edge, possibly to concentrate attention on the woman.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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