The girl with the pearl earring
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| The girl with the pearl earring |
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| Jan Vermeer , 1665 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 45 × 40 cm |
| Mauritshuis |
The Girl with the Pearl Earring ( Dutch : Meisje met de parel ) is Jan Vermeer's most popular painting. The fame of the 45 centimeter high and 40 centimeter wideportrait paintedwith oil on canvas ,created around 1665,is primarily due to the modern reception and the fact that this work was the starting point for a successful Vermeer exhibition in the Mauritshuis in The Hague in 1995 and 1996 was. The undated picture is signed IVMeer and is part ofthe Mauritshuis collection .
description
The painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring shows a girl without putting her into a narrative context with any attributes. It is not known who the person pictured is. It could have been a paid model , a tronie , or the picture was a commissioned work . The portrait is designed as a shoulder piece so that the face and the shoulders can be seen; the picture ends at armpit level. The girl is wearing a beige jacket, from which the white collar stands out clearly. In addition, the jacket forms a contrast to the blue turban with the yellow falling cloth. It is a sign of the interest in the at that timeoriental culture as a result of the Turkish wars . Turbans were therefore a popular and widespread accessory in Europe in the 17th century . Particularly noticeable is the pendant on the girl's ear, which protrudes from the shadow area of the neck and sparkles in the light. The girl interacts with the viewer by looking directly at him and keeping her mouth slightly open, which in Dutch painting often suggests the viewer being addressed.
The image background is neutral and very dark, but not black because of its many colors. It increases the brightness of the girl, especially that of her skin. Vermeer painted the girl's clothes with almost pure colors.
restoration
During the restoration of the painting in 1994, the old varnish was removed and replaced with a new one, so that the colors appear brighter. There was also a small point of white paint on the right side of the lower lip. It also showed that there was one too much reflection on the pearl that did not come from Vermeer.
Provenance
The girl with the pearl earring was sold at an auction in The Hague in 1881. During the tour, the picture of Victor de Stuer caught the eye , an art advisor in the Royal Dutch Ministry of the Interior, who recommended it to his friend, the art collector Arnoldus Andries des Tombe († around 1903). There are two different representations of this incident. One claims that Stuers recognized the picture as a Vermeer despite its poor condition, the other suggests that Vermeer's authorship only became apparent after the signature had been cleaned and the signature was exposed. Stuers decided not to bid against the tombe, who bought it for two guilders and a premium of 30 cents.
The portrait, like the entire Tombes collection, was open to the public in his home, where Abraham Bredius first praised it as a work of Vermeer's in 1885 . After the death of the tomb in 1902, the picture passed into the possession of the Mauritshuis , as was stipulated in his secret will , along with 15 other works .
reception
Originally the painting was entitled "The girl with the turban", "Portrait of a young woman with pearl earrings" or simply "Girl portrait" or "Girl portrait". For the major Vermeer retrospective that took place in The Hague in 1995, the painting was first referred to in the catalog as “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and has been known by this title ever since.
It is controversial whether the eponymous piece of jewelry is actually a pearl. The pearl depicted in the painting is larger than the girl's eyeball. A pearl of this size would not have been affordable for either the girl or Vermeer. Scientists at the Mauritshuis therefore assume that it is a silver ball or a glass bead, which is also indicated by the type of reflection.
Recently, the picture The Girl with the Pearl Earring has received increasing attention and is therefore Jan Vermeer's most popular work. The 2001 novel The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier deals with the question of who the woman in the picture is and develops a fictional story about the maid Griet, who is the model for the picture. In 2003 the book was made into a film by the British film director Peter Webber . Scarlett Johansson plays the main roles as Maid Griet and Colin Firth plays Jan Vermeer. The girl with the pearl earring received multiple awards and was nominated for three Oscarsnominated. The Legoset 60008 “Museum Robbery” contains a very similar “picture”.
literature
- Arthur K. Wheelock, Ben Broos: The Girl with the Pearl Earring . In: Johannes Vermeer. Exhibition catalog. Nat. Gallery of Art, Washington, Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle: Waanders 1995. pp. 166-169.
- Arthur K. Wheelock: Vermeer . DuMont Literature and Art Publishing, Cologne 2003. ISBN 3-8321-7339-0
- Norbert Schneider: Vermeer all paintings . Taschen, Cologne 2004. ISBN 3-8228-6377-7
- Epco Runia, Peter van der Ploeg: Vermeer in the Mauritshuis . Waanders Publishers, Zwolle 2005. ISBN 90-400-9073-4
Web links
- Video guide for the painting (avoid-the-girl-with-the-pearl-earring)
- Girl with a pearl-earring on mauritshuis.nl ( en )
- “The girl with the pearl earring” - Not all of Vermeer's secrets can be revealed - Carsten Probst in conversation with Nana Brink. (at deutschlandfunkkultur.de on April 28, 2020)
- meisje met de parel on mauritshuis.nl ( nl )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Beatrix Zumbält: Johannes Vermeer. (No longer available online.) Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster , 2005, archived from the original on October 19, 2017 ; accessed on January 24, 2020 .
- ^ Wheelock, Broos 1995. p. 166.
- ^ Norbert Schneider: Vermeer all paintings . Taschen, Cologne 2004. page 69
- ↑ Epco Runia, Peter van der Ploeg: Vermeer in the Mauritshuis . Waanders Publishers, Zwolle 2005. page 68
- ↑ Little Chronicle. In: Wiener Zeitung , December 16, 1877, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ a b From the Maurits House in the Hague. In: Wiener Zeitung , March 11, 1903, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ a b Epco Runia, Peter van der Ploeg: Vermeer in the Mauritshuis . Waanders Publishers, Zwolle 2005. page 68
- ↑ A new Vermeer van Delft discovered. In: Neues Wiener Journal , December 13, 1924, p. 9 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ Theater and Art. In: Wiener Zeitung , July 11, 1905, p. 19 (online at ANNO ).