Johannes Vermeer – Girl with a Pearl Earring

The Girl with a Pearl Earring Movie

Girl with a Pearl Earring, 2003

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Essie Davis, Tom Wilkinson.

Watch the movie in Russian

In 2003, a feature film was directed by Peter Webber, thanks to which many people who were not interested in painting learned about the Dutch painter Jan Vermeer and the painting that became the central theme of the film.

The film, based on Tracy Chevaliers book, takes considerable liberties with the story of how Vermeers masterpiece was created. However, such artistic license is easy to forgive, knowing how many mysteries surround the famous painting, nicknamed Dutch Mona Lisa. Girl, or Girl in a Turban, as the painting was originally called, dates back to 1665, and there are far more hypotheses about it than reliable facts.

The painting belongs to the genre of Tronie, which was popular among portrait painters in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. This genre denoted images of a persons head. In 1881, at the recommendation of Victor de Stuers, who advocated for preserving masterpieces by Dutch masters in their historical homeland, Girl in a Turban was purchased for a pittance at an auction in The Hague in terrible condition and later restored. Donated to the Mauritshuis museum, the painting still resides in its rightful place, in the Netherlands.

The painting depicts a young girl in a dynamic pose: the moment when the model turns her head towards the viewer, as if someone has called her from the other side of the canvas. The lighting emphasizes her wide-open eyes, slightly parted lips, and a large teardrop-shaped pearl earring, thanks to which Vermeers masterpiece later received its name. The large, almost unnaturally large pearl repeats the light reflection in the models eyes, but the painting is centered so that the viewer first notices the jewelry, and then the alluring gaze of the girl. Interestingly, the artist depicted a similar earring on several other of his works (Woman with a Lute, Woman in a Pearl Necklace and six other well-known paintings). The girl looks at the viewer against a dark, almost black background, which further accentuates her pale face and brightly colored turban, concealing her hair. Her slightly parted lips, according to symbolism in painting of that time, indicate an attempt at communication. A lemon-yellow fabric falls from the turban almost vertically, adding dynamism to the painting and emphasizing the turn of her head. The girl is dressed in a dark brown dress, with a bright, almost bold collar made of pure lead white.

Neither the name of the mysterious model, nor the reason why she is wearing a dress and turban that were not fashionable at the time, nor the patron, if he existed, are known. According to one version, this is the daughter of Jan Vermeer, Maria, who was about thirteen years old at the time the painting was created; another hypothesis suggests that the model was the daughter of the patron Ruijven, a supporter of the artist. Tracy Chevaliers book, however, claims that the girl depicted in the painting was a young maid named Griet.

For nearly four hundred years, the painting has stirred the imagination no less than the Mona Lisa hanging in the Louvre. A simple gesture and an attentive gaze convey the silent connection between the model and the artist – an emotion that runs like a red thread through many portraits by the Dutch painter.

The pearl in the girls earring is large and catches the eye. Its no wonder that everyone who saw that beauty was captivated by her.

beautiful