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Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer · c. 1665

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CULTUREPICK · MASTERWORK MAGNIFIER

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer · c. 1665
Collection Mauritshuis · The Hague
Original 12,285 × 14,550px

The pearl earring — what secret lies behind it?

Key Points

A "girl with a pearl earring" painted by a 17th-century Dutch painter astonished the world
The model may have been a real person, or she may have been imagined by the painter
A 1994 restoration deepened the intensity of the girl's gaze
In 2014, controversy arose over whether the pearl was actually a pearl at all

Reading the Work

What's Depicted

This painting is a "girl" painted by Johannes Vermeer, a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. She wears an exotic turban and a large pearl earring. Her eyes look directly at the viewer, as if she has stepped out of the painting into reality to strike up a conversation.

Into the Painting

The background of the painting is a dark blue, while the girl's face and clothing are emphasized with warm tones. Her eyes are rendered with delicate eyelashes, and the earring has a glistening sheen. During restoration it was discovered that the background was originally blue, and this blue makes the girl stand out all the more.

Why It's a Masterpiece

This painting is not a simple portrait but a "tronie" — a head study created through the painter's imagination. Her gaze and earring draw in the viewer, and the work symbolizes the identity of the Dutch Golden Age in art history. The painting has been adapted into literature and film, becoming widely known around the world.

Commentary source: Smarthistory · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Image: Public domain · Original on Wikimedia Commons
Viewer: OpenSeadragon (BSD)

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