Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Pearl
Johannes Vermeer · c. 1665
01
Delft. Around 1665.
Nobody knows who she is.
It isn't a portrait. It's a tronie.
02
Look at her eyes.
The 2018 study found eyelashes.
Too fine to see unaided.
03
The background looks empty.
It was a green curtain.
The green has darkened to black.
04
The headscarf is ultramarine.
A costly blue.
Vermeer used it freely.
05
And the pearl.
Strokes of white paint. Nothing more.
No hook. Nothing holds it to her ear.
The whole head.
Uncropped.
“In a day and a half he had gone from being healthy to being dead.”
1881
The painting turns up at auction in The Hague.
It sells for two guilders. Plus thirty cents.
The buyer, A.A. des Tombe, dies in 1902.
His will leaves it to the Mauritshuis.
Johannes Vermeer
Dutch · Baroque · 1632 to 1675
Sources · 5
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