Girl with a Pearl Earring

The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of artist Johannes Vermeer’s greatest efforts and in some circles is often referred to as a monumental work of art. The artist sometimes simply called Vermeer was a Dutch painter born in 1632. His mastery of such artistic elements as the stroke of the brush, the effects of light on his works and his use of and mastery over bright color pigments would make him one of the most recognized Dutch painters of all time.

Johannes Vermeer was not a prolific painter. Much of the work that he created he would work on at a painstaking slow pace, but Vermeer took great care in how he used his talents to bring life onto the painted canvas.

It is unclear who the artist may have apprenticed with, but it is thought that it may have been Carel Fabritius, a pupil of world renowned artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, may have actually been his teacher but there is much speculation surrounding this issue. Others think that he was trained by a catholic painter named Abraham Bloemaert.

Vermeer joined a group of painters who belonged to the Guild of Saint Luke in December of 1653. The records kept by the guild show that Vermeer did not pay the regular fees associated with belonging to the association. In that year Vermeer along with many other artists were having a tough time making ends meet, because during that year the Plague was causing economic hardships with most of the country’s population.

There was some suspicion that Vermeer used special equipment to help him capture some of the images that were a part of his paintings, and this was especially true of his truly masterful work Girl with a Pearl Earring, but these suspicions were never quantified because of a lack of proof.

The painting of the Girl with a Pearl Earring was done during the years 1665-1666, and was an impressive piece of painted art, and the canvas’s dimensions measured 17.5" X 15.4". The focal point of the painting is the pearl that the girl is wearing in her ear. Her head turned toward her left shoulder, as she is looking at the viewer. Vermeer’s mastery of the paintbrush shows in the way he was able to mix the aspects of light and color that brought his subject matter to life. The pearl also serves as a symbolic point for viewers of the painting, as it suggests that the young lady still remains a virgin.

It’s even been said that the picture of the young lady shares some traits with another world renowned portrait painted by another master artist named Leonardo Da Vinci in his portrait of the Mona Lisa. To this day many questions surrounding the identity of the subject of Vermeer’s portrait still go unanswered.