Intimacy: An introduction to the Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vermeer's Greatest Mystery
"Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Vermeer.
She looks over her shoulder. Her lips are slightly parted. She catches our eye, and suddenly we feel like we have just interrupted her. We all know the face. She is everywhere nowadays. You spot her on tote bags, coffee mugs, and naturally, on the walls of homes across the globe.
But who really is she? Johannes Vermeer painted "Girl with a Pearl Earring" around 1665. Since then, she has become an iconic figure. People often call her the Mona Lisa of the North. Yet, despite all the fame, she remains a complete enigma. We actually know very little about the painting itself. The artist left no letters. He left no diaries. He scarcely left a paper trail at all.
Today, we’re going to delve into the history of this masterpiece. We will explore how it was created, how it nearly disappeared for good, and why it still captivates us nearly four hundred years on.
Detail of the painting 'The Procuress', believed to be a self-portrait by Johannes Vermeer.
The Man Behind the Brush: Who Was Johannes Vermeer?
Before we talk about the girl, we must talk about the man who painted her. Johannes Vermeer spent his entire life in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. The 17th century was the Dutch Golden Age. Trade was booming. Wealth was plentiful. Art was in great demand.
Vermeer was no superstar during his lifetime. He was respected in his hometown, certainly. But he painted very slowly. He only completed around two or three paintings a year. Today, we have roughly 34 paintings that experts unanimously agree are genuinely his.
He had a large family to support. He and his wife Catharina had 15 children. Unsurprisingly, money was always tight. When Vermeer died aged 43, he was broke. His wife had to trade his paintings to local bakers just to settle the family’s bread bill. Over the subsequent two centuries, the art world entirely forgot about him. His name disappeared from the history books. Other artists even signed their own names over his paintings simply to sell them more quickly.
It was not until the late 1800s that critics finally rediscovered his genius. They dubbed him the "Sphinx of Delft" because of his mystery. Once they started examining his work closely, they realised no one handled light quite like Vermeer.
Not a Portrait: The Secret of the Tronie
This is the biggest misunderstanding about the "Girl with a Pearl Earring." People always ask, "Who is the model?" We naturally assume it’s a portrait. Some say it is Vermeer’s eldest daughter, Maria. Others suggest it was a housemaid.
The reality is much simpler. It is not a portrait at all.
In the 17th-century Dutch art market, there was a particular genre called a "tronie." The word simply translates to "face" or "mug." A tronie was not intended to depict a specific, real person. Instead, it was a character study. Artists painted tronies to showcase their skills. They sought to prove they could paint extreme facial expressions, intriguing lighting, or exotic costumes.
When buyers purchased a tronie, they were not buying a picture of a neighbour. They were buying a mood. They were buying an intriguing character to hang in their study.
Our girl dons a yellow garment and a blue turban. Turbans were not exactly everyday wear for Dutch women in 1665. The outfit was thoroughly exotic. Vermeer dressed his model with studio props to create an idealised, mysterious character. So, the girl might have been based on someone he knew, but the painting itself is pure invention.
The Big Fake Pearl
Let’s talk about the star of the show. The pearl. It catches the light perfectly. It hangs heavy from her ear. It balances the entire composition.
There is just one snag. It is physically impossible for that to be a real pearl.
Pearls of that size simply did not exist in nature. If they did, they belonged to royalty and cost an absolute fortune. A struggling artist in Delft certainly did not have access to a teardrop pearl the size of a plum.
Art historians and scientists have examined the painting under microscopes. They discovered the earring is an illusion. Vermeer likely painted a glass teardrop that was varnished to appear like a pearl. Or perhaps it was a hollow tin sphere.
Look closely at the earring. Vermeer did not even paint a hook attaching it to her ear. He simply painted a few masterful strokes of white lead paint. He placed one bright highlight on the top left to catch the window light. He painted a softer reflection on the bottom to catch the light bouncing off her white collar. Our brains fill in the rest. It is a clever magic trick.
An Obsession with Blue: The Price of Ultramarine
The blue turban is one of the most striking elements of the canvas. That particular shade of blue has quite the history.
Vermeer used a pigment called natural ultramarine. In the 1600s, this was literally more expensive than gold. You could not simply stroll into an art shop and pick it up. True ultramarine came from just one place on earth: the remote mines of Badakhshan in today’s Afghanistan.
Workers mined lapis lazuli stone from the mountains. Merchants transported it thousands of miles on the backs of donkeys. It travelled across deserts, through trading hubs, and finally on ships to Venice, and then onwards to the Netherlands. Once it arrived, artists crushed the stone into a fine powder and mixed it with oil.
Most artists used ultramarine sparingly. They reserved it for the robes of the Virgin Mary. Vermeer, on the other hand, used it frequently. He applied it in shadows. He mixed it into white tablecloths. And here, he deployed it boldly for a wholly fictional turban.
This fixation on an expensive pigment is one reason Vermeer was perpetually in debt. But viewing the painting now, we can say it was a worthy investment. The blue still leaps from the canvas today.
Composite image of Girl with a Pearl Earring. © Sylvain Fleur. Read the full story of the Girl in the Spotlight project here.
The Lost Green Background
When you look at the painting today, the girl stands out against an incredibly dark, almost black background. This high contrast gives her a three-dimensional appearance. It feels modern, almost like a flash photograph.
But that wasn’t Vermeer’s original intention. Science tells us a different tale.
Researchers have scanned the canvas with X-rays and advanced chemical analysers. They found the background was once a dark, glossy green. Vermeer painted a black base layer and then glazed a translucent mix of yellow and blue pigments over it.
Over the centuries, light and ageing have broken down the yellow and blue pigments. The green glaze faded away. All that remains is the black base layer. Time has actually changed the mood of the artwork. We happen to like the dark background, but it’s fascinating to know the painting once looked quite different.
The Bargain of the Century: How She Was Nearly Lost
So, what became of the painting after Vermeer’s passing?
It practically disappeared. For about two hundred years, hardly anyone paid attention to it. It changed hands in obscure estate sales. It became grimy. The varnish darkened to a yellow hue.
In 1881, the painting surfaced at an auction in The Hague. It was in dreadful condition. The canvas was cracked. The image was difficult to discern. Most bidders ignored it.
Yet two art historians, Victor de Stuers and Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, were present at the auction. They looked past the dirt and immediately recognised the distinctive brushstrokes. They knew it was a lost Vermeer.
They struck a quiet agreement. They decided not to bid against each other so the price would remain low. Des Tombe raised his paddle and won the painting. He paid two guilders, plus a thirty-cent auction fee.
By today’s standards, that’s about thirty dollars. Easily one of the greatest bargains in art history.
Johannes Vermeer's painting Girl with a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis museum. Photo: Lex van Lieshout
A Permanent Home: The Mauritshuis
Des Tombe took the painting home and had it cleaned. The beautiful girl re-emerged from beneath centuries of grime. He hung it in his house for years. With no heirs, when he died in 1902, he bequeathed his entire art collection to a museum in The Hague.
That museum is the Mauritshuis. The painting has resided there ever since.
The Mauritshuis is a small, intimate museum. It’s not overwhelming like the Louvre. It feels more like a grand old house. If you ever find yourself in the Netherlands, you simply must see her in person. She has a dedicated space and absolutely commands the room. You can learn more about her home directly on the Mauritshuis museum’s official page.
The 1994 Restoration: Taking a Closer Look
In 1994, the museum decided it was time for another clean. Over the 20th century, the old varnishes had yellowed again. The girl looked as though she had a slight case of jaundice.
Conservators carefully removed the old varnish with special solvents. They worked millimetre by millimetre. As they stripped away the yellow layer, the painting’s original cool tones surged back. The white collar became crisp. The blue turban brightened once more.
During this process, they uncovered some intriguing details. They spotted a tiny white speck of paint close to the pearl. Initially, people thought it was a second reflection. But under the microscope, conservators realised it was a loose flake of paint from the canvas that had simply stuck upside down during an earlier restoration. They gently removed it.
They also discovered that Vermeer had actually painted delicate, tiny eyelashes. We usually assume she has none, but they faded over time. If you want to explore the high-resolution details of the restoration and see the brushwork up close, we thoroughly recommend reading this interactive breakdown from Google Arts & Culture. It’s remarkable to observe the canvas texture and the network of cracks across her face.
Girl with a Pearl Earring: the film.
Pop Culture Explosion: Books, Films, and Memes
For a long time, the painting was famous mainly among art enthusiasts. Then, the late 1990s arrived.
An author named Tracy Chevalier had a poster of the painting in her bedroom. She gazed at it one day and wondered what the story behind it was. Since history gave no answers, she composed her own. She wrote a historical fiction novel called *Girl with a Pearl Earring*.
The book proposed the girl was a maid named Griet. It portrayed a quiet romance between the maid and the master artist. The book became a global bestseller.
A few years later, Hollywood adapted it into a film. Scarlett Johansson played the girl, and Colin Firth portrayed Vermeer. The film earned Oscar nominations and brought the painting firmly into mainstream pop culture. Suddenly, everyone recognised the image.
Today, the girl is a staple of the internet. She appears in memes. Her face is found on socks. She’s recreated in street art. She moved beyond the museum wall to become a universal icon.
Why Do We Still Love Her? Because of the intimacy
There are millions of old paintings in the world. Why did this particular one become so famous? Why do we keep returning to her?
We believe it comes down to intimacy. Much classical art feels distant. Kings on horses, vast religious scenes, or stiff aristocrats in frilly collars. You look at them and feel the centuries between you and the subject.
The Girl with a Pearl Earring feels different. She feels immediate. The way she turns her head suggests movement. She has just noticed us. Her mouth is slightly open as if about to speak. It breaks down the fourth wall of art.
Vermeer softened the edges of her face a little. The transition from her skin to the dark background is gentle. This optical trick makes her feel alive, breathing, and present. We are forever caught in a fleeting, passing moment with her.
Bring the Masterpiece Home
We believe great art shouldn’t be locked away in textbooks. It belongs in our everyday lives. Surrounding ourselves with history and beauty genuinely alters a room’s atmosphere.
You might not have two guilders and thirty cents to buy the original at a secret 19th-century auction. Thankfully, you don’t need to. We’ve put together an excellent selection of prints paying tribute to this very masterpiece.
If you wish to add this iconic face to your own space, we have you covered. We offer top-quality prints that capture the rich blues and strong contrasts of Vermeer’s original work. You can browse different sizes and formats to suit your living room, office, or bedroom.
Take a look at our dedicated Girl with a Pearl Earring posters collection here at Posterscape. We make it straightforward to bring a piece of the Dutch Golden Age into your contemporary home.
The mystery of the girl will never be unraveled. We will never know her name. We will never know what she thought when Vermeer painted her. And frankly, we prefer it that way.
The unknown is precisely what keeps us coming back.
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