Interview with Tracy Chevalier — author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

— What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer’s painting?

— I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous — sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I thought there must be a story behind her look, but we don’t know who the model for the painting was, so I realized I would have to make up the story myself.

— Why did you make the girl a servant? Did Griet really exist?

— In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women’s Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. However, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. So I thought, who would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant. Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works.

— Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?

— I think people like Vermeer because he reflects our everyday lives, yet makes them more beautiful and more ideal. He paints a whole world in a little corner of a room. The paintings are beautiful and simple and yet complicated too, with lingering depths and understated meanings. They are very calm paintings, and you’re forced to slow down when you look at them. In this noisy, frenetic world, that tranquility can be quite seductive.

Internet: <www.tchevalier.com> (adapted).

Interview with Tracy Chevalier — author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

— What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer’s painting?

— I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous — sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I thought there must be a story behind her look, but we don’t know who the model for the painting was, so I realized I would have to make up the story myself.

— Why did you make the girl a servant? Did Griet really exist?

— In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women’s Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. However, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. So I thought, who would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant. Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works.

— Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?

— I think people like Vermeer because he reflects our everyday lives, yet makes them more beautiful and more ideal. He paints a whole world in a little corner of a room. The paintings are beautiful and simple and yet complicated too, with lingering depths and understated meanings. They are very calm paintings, and you’re forced to slow down when you look at them. In this noisy, frenetic world, that tranquility can be quite seductive.

Internet: <www.tchevalier.com> (adapted).

Interview with Tracy Chevalier — author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

— What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer’s painting?

— I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous — sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I thought there must be a story behind her look, but we don’t know who the model for the painting was, so I realized I would have to make up the story myself.

— Why did you make the girl a servant? Did Griet really exist?

— In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women’s Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. However, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. So I thought, who would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant. Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works.

— Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?

— I think people like Vermeer because he reflects our everyday lives, yet makes them more beautiful and more ideal. He paints a whole world in a little corner of a room. The paintings are beautiful and simple and yet complicated too, with lingering depths and understated meanings. They are very calm paintings, and you’re forced to slow down when you look at them. In this noisy, frenetic world, that tranquility can be quite seductive.

Internet: <www.tchevalier.com> (adapted).

Interview with Tracy Chevalier — author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

— What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer’s painting?

— I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous — sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I thought there must be a story behind her look, but we don’t know who the model for the painting was, so I realized I would have to make up the story myself.

— Why did you make the girl a servant? Did Griet really exist?

— In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women’s Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. However, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. So I thought, who would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant. Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works.

— Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?

— I think people like Vermeer because he reflects our everyday lives, yet makes them more beautiful and more ideal. He paints a whole world in a little corner of a room. The paintings are beautiful and simple and yet complicated too, with lingering depths and understated meanings. They are very calm paintings, and you’re forced to slow down when you look at them. In this noisy, frenetic world, that tranquility can be quite seductive.

Internet: <www.tchevalier.com> (adapted).

Johannes Vermeer. Girl with a pearl earring, 1665, oil on
canvas, 44,5 cm × 39 cm, Mauritshuis, the Hague, the
Netherlands.

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.

His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.

During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.

Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.

Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.

Johannes Vermeer. Girl with a pearl earring, 1665, oil on
canvas, 44,5 cm × 39 cm, Mauritshuis, the Hague, the
Netherlands.

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.

His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.

During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.

Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.

Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.

Johannes Vermeer. Girl with a pearl earring, 1665, oil on
canvas, 44,5 cm × 39 cm, Mauritshuis, the Hague, the
Netherlands.

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.

His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.

During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.

Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.

Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.

Johannes Vermeer. Girl with a pearl earring, 1665, oil on
canvas, 44,5 cm × 39 cm, Mauritshuis, the Hague, the
Netherlands.

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.

His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.

During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.

Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.

Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.

Johannes Vermeer. Girl with a pearl earring, 1665, oil on
canvas, 44,5 cm × 39 cm, Mauritshuis, the Hague, the
Netherlands.

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.

His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.

During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.

Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.

Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.

Johannes Vermeer. Girl with a pearl earring, 1665, oil on
canvas, 44,5 cm × 39 cm, Mauritshuis, the Hague, the
Netherlands.

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.

His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.

During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.

Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.

Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.