Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Template:Painting The Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Het meisje met de parel) is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's masterworks and as the name implies, uses a pearl earring for a focal point. The painting is currently housed at The Mauritshuis in The Hague. It is sometimes referred to as "the Mona Lisa of the North."

1 Background information
2 Novel
3 Film
- 3.1 Awards won
4 References
5 External links

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Background information

In general, very little is known about Vermeer and his works. This painting is signed "IVMeer", but not dated. It is unclear whether or not this work was commissioned, and if so by whom. In any case, it is probably not meant as a conventional portrait. Instead, Vermeer may have tried to capture the moment in which this girl, whose identity is unknown, turns her head towards someone whom she has just noticed.Template:Ref

On the advice of Victor de Stuers, who for years tried to prevent Vermeer's rare works from being sold to parties abroad, A.A. des Tombe purchased the work at an auction in The Hague in 1881 for only two guilders and thirty cents. At the time, its condition was very bad. Des Tombe had no heirs and donated this and other paintings to the Mauritshuis in 1902.Template:Ref

In 1937, a very similar painting, at the time also thought to be by Vermeer, was donated by collector Andrew W. Mellon to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It is now widely considered to be a fake. Vermeer expert Arthur Wheelock claimed in a 1995 study that it is by 20th century artist and notorious forger Theo van Wijngaarden, a friend of the even more notorious Han van Meegeren.Template:Ref

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Novel

Vermeer's painting inspired the novel Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, which imagines the circumstances under which the painting came to be created.

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Film

The 2003 United Kingdom/Luxembourg drama film Girl with a Pearl Earring was directed by Peter Webber. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by screenwriter Olivia Hetreed. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson and Cillian Murphy.

Griet (Johansson) is a peasant woman whose father is a ceramic painter who becomes blind. Due to her family's difficulty in earning money, she is forced to work as a maid in the home of the painter Vermeer (Firth) who also has trouble keeping his lavish lifestyle due the constant arrival of children into the family. She shows interest and good comprehension in painting and Vermeer notices this fact, and instructs her to create the handmade colours for his paintings. She eventually becomes the model for what becomes one of his most famous works. However, this infuriates Vermeer's jealous wife because the importance of the painting is the pearl earring Griet wears that belongs to Vermeer's wife. An earring, let alone a pearl, could never be worn by a servant. Afterwards she has to move out from the house.

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