Girl With a Pearl Earring

By Tracey Chevalier

The story springs out from the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's painting 'Girl With a Pearl Earring'. It is an attempt by the author to tell the story behind this painting, trying to find the answer to why the girl looked the way she did.

Griet is the Protestant daughter of a Delft tile painter who has lost his sight in an accident. In order to bring income to her struggling family, Griet starts to work as a maid for Vermeer and his wife, Catharina, in their growing Catholic household. The Vermeer household, with its five children, grandmother and long-time servant, is ready to make Griet's working life difficult.

Vermeer himself is a moody person, who spends long hours locked away in his vast studio. His pregnant wife is resentful and jealous of Griet's youth and beauty. Griet quickly becomes fascinatied with her master's paintings. Vermeer senses that Griet has an appreciation of his work no one else in the family shows. He secretly makes her his assistant, teaching her to buy and mix his paints. Their relationship is concealed from the family much due to the fact that Catharina is not allowed into Vermeer's studio because of her clumsiness and lack of appreciation for his artwork.

However, their relationship cannot go on unnoticed forever. One day the wealthy Master van Ruijven, Vermeer's most prominent patron, demands that Vermeer is to paint Griet for his next commissioned work - and it is then that Vermeer paints her wearing his wife's pearl earrings.

A novel that is a beautifully written pearl of its own.