Even though Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) is now considered one of the great Dutch masters, he was relatively unknown during his lifetime. He produced only about 45 paintings for a small circle of clients. Unlike most of the Dutch masters, Vermeer did not study with an important artist; he was largely self-taught. Most of his paintings are indoor scenes of everyday domestic life. The artist also showed an affinity for painting idealized portraits of women.
Vermeer experimented constantly with techniques for showing the realistic effects of natural light. His application of color was slow and meticulous—one of the reasons that he produced so few paintings. Like most artists of his time, Vermeer used a precise, step-by-step method to create a painting. First the artist worked out the drawing and the lighting scheme. Then he built up the composition, completing one small area of the painting at a time.
Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of Vermeer’s best known—and certainly most beloved—works. It is a type of 17th-century Dutch portrait called a tronie. Tronies were idealized images in which the subject wore an unusual costume, hat, or jewelry. In Girl with a Pearl Earring, the subject looks directly at the viewer over her left shoulder.
She wears an elaborate turban, and the artist has made her large earring a focal point in the composition. Bright light from outside the picture plane illuminates the subject’s face and parts of her costume; areas of deep shadow contrast with this brightness. Two specks of white paint animate the girl’s half smile and mimic the highlights in her eyes.
To create the background, Vermeer applied translucent green over dark underpaint. The pigments have since discolored and now look completely black. Artists used dark backgrounds like this one to highlight the three-dimensional qualities of a portrait. As with the women in most tronies, no one knows the true identity of the young woman in this painting. But her compelling image has inspired a novel, a film, and a play.