The Girl with the Pearl Earrings

A Loved Painting and How I Became the Girl with Pearl Earrings

Growing up, my parents took us many places, but I do not recall going into an art museum until I was 15. This happened in Madrid, and the Museo del Prado was an impressive place to experience an introduction to fine art. Goya was the one who caught my attention.

Through the years, my appreciation for art has continued. Although I am quite creative, I do not consider myself to be artistic. Yet I do enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of artists. The fact that we can know about works of art that are across the world is fascinating.

Recently I visited The Joslyn in Omaha. This was my first opportunity to see the renovations, and I was so impressed with the updates. I plan to write further posts on the Joslyn in the coming weeks. Before I went, I checked into certain paintings with the hope that I could maybe see them in person.

One piece of art that I have always appreciated is “The Girl with the Pearl Earring.” The young woman’s look in the picture is distinct yet beautiful. I decided that I would love to see that painting in person. Until I discovered that the painting is across the ocean. Since I do not have plans to travel to the Netherlands, I suppose I can keep admiring the painting online. But I did enjoy learning more about the museum.

The Mauritshuis: is tagged as the most beautiful museum in the Hague. Not surprisingly, the collections consist of many Dutch and Fleming artisits. According to the website, the museum opened in 1822. To commemorate that anniversary, artists were commissioned to create five murals across the Hague that were inspired by Mauritshuis paintings. The project turned out so well that twenty murals can be found across the country that were all inspired by actual art works.

Johannes Vermeer created the oil painting in 1665. According to the Encyclopedia, he started painting in the 1650s. Only 36 of his paintings survived. The link takes you to “his” website where you can learn more about the artist and his life.

This excerpt from the Encyclopedia Brittanica tells more technical details about the specific painting.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is not a portrait but a tronie, a Dutch term for a character or type of person. A young woman might have sat for Vermeer, but the painting is not meant to portray her or any specific individual in the same way that Leonardo’s piece portrayed an existing person (likely Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant). Vermeer’s subject is a generic young woman in exotic dress, a study in facial expression and costume. The work attests to Vermeer’s technical expertise and interest in representing light. The soft modeling of the subject’s face reveals his mastery of using light rather than line to create form, while the reflection on her lips and on the earring show his concern for representing the effect of light on different surfaces.

I also discovered more about the Girl with a Pearl Earring on the Mauritshuis museum website. You can watch a slideshow that tells many more details about the image including a time lapse of how the painting might have been created. While this painting is a smaller size, the impact has been bigger than life.

Vermeer painted the girl without any hard lines. We call this technique sfumato, the Italian word for smoky or blurred. This means that all kinds of details are missing, such as the hook for the earring – Vermeer did not paint that at all. And where does her nose turn into her cheek? So you can see more than Vermeer actually painted: your brain fills in the details so subtly that you don’t even notice it happening.

Someday I still hope to get to see the painting in person. So why did this painting fascinate me so much this month? Perhaps it is because I am a girl with pearl earrings. When I was asked to create a previous post about Aurate jewelry, not only did I find a beautiful necklace, I also discovered complimentary pearl earrings. As I had mentioned in my intial Aurate post, my name means “precious pearl.” My parents had gifted me a small pair when I was much younger. Now I am excited to own two larger actual pearl earring sets.

I was hoping to be able to share a physical picture of the actual earring with you, but unfortunately there was an order mix-up. (Aurate has been great to work with and will be sending me the correct earrings soon!) As you can see the earrings that I selected are so beautiful! Since I selected the pearl stack, I had to give a nod to owning multiple pearl earrings in my post title. 🙂

Back to the painting … one can purchase a “Girl with the Pearl Earring” puzzle in the Joslyn gift shop. While the museum does not have any Vermeer works, they do have paintings from several other Dutch masters. During my visit, I used my cell phone to take several “no flash” pictures. I did find out that actual cameras are not permitted, but candid photos are allowed.

Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase – Maria van Oosterwyck | The Joslyn
Landscape with a Mill – Jan van Goyen | The Joslyn
A Wooded River Landscape with Travelers Resting and Conversing on a Path – Jan Wijnants | The Joslyn
Note: I created the collage photo using the actual wall color as a backdrop. The paintings are not arranged this way in person. They definitely need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Disclaimer: this post and products were sponsored by Responsival. The post was created through a partnership with Responsival and not directly with Aurate jewelry. Connections made the Vermeer artwork are indirect ones.