The young woman with the pearl by Vermeer: ​​history, analysis and meaning of the painting

Picture The girl of the pearl It is one of the most famous works of the Delft painter Johannes Vermeer, who produced it around 1665. Also known as Girl with turban or The Dutch Mona Lisa, is one of the most representative pieces of the Flemish Baroque.

The girl of the pearl gained great notoriety thanks to its expressive beauty and technical perfection. In addition, the work was enigmatic for modern audiences, to the point of inspiring a novel and a film of the same name. For what purpose has Vermeer given life to this canvas so small and so painstaking at the same time? What are the mysteries attributed to it?

History of the painting

The girl of the pearl It was painted by Vermeer around 1665. Its first owner was the patron of Vermeer, and then it passed into the hands of the son-in-law. However, his whereabouts were not known for the next two centuries.

The work appeared at auction in The Hague in 1881. Andries des Tombe, a Dutch army officer and art collector, then acquired it to prevent it from falling into foreign hands. It cost the collector the ridiculous sum of two florins, which is now the equivalent of one dollar.

Following the officer's death, the canvas was donated to the Royal Gallery of Mauritshuis Paintings in The Hague in 1902, where has remained since then, with the exception of the traveling exhibitions that have been held around the world.

For example, the piece was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, in 1965 and 1966. Most recently, it was exhibited at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo in 2012. Between 2013 and 2014, it returned to the United States, and was exhibited at the High Museum in Atlanta, the Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Frick Collection in New York. His last traveling exhibition took place in 2014 in Bologna.

Frame analysis

Picture The girl of the pearl It was painted with the oil on canvas technique. Its dimensions are small: barely 46.5 cm high by 40 cm wide. It represents the bust of a young woman (head and shoulders). Her body appears completely in profile, while her head tilts gently in half profile, directing the gaze to the viewer.

The young woman's features are Caucasian: very white skin, large clear eyes, and a fine nose. As the Mona Lisa, it seems that the young woman does not have eyebrows. Instead, her lips are parted and relaxed, red, wet and shiny like fresh fruit. Her teeth are barely suggested in the small opening of her mouth, while a delicate brushstroke at the corner of her lips gives it liveliness.

Her nose has a peculiarity: the septum is not visible but a visual illusion. This blends into the illuminated cheek. With this resource, Vermeer leaves the viewer the ability to complete the image in mind. In fact, in a careless view we cannot perceive the omission, because our brain makes us imagine the presence of the septum.

Clothing

The European appearance of the young woman contrasts with her clothing: the girl wears an oriental turban on her head with the colors blue and yellow. He wears an exotic jacket in an ocher palette, in which Vermeer achieves an exquisite treatment of the texture of the fabric. At the neck, a white ruff stands out.

At that time, it was not customary for women to wear Turkish turbans. Most likely, Vermeer provided the model with this accessory in order to study it. In the midst of this ensemble, attention is drawn to the earring, whose brilliance stands out in a dark atmosphere.

The earring, a pearl?

Since 1995, this piece is called The girl of the pearl because of the earring she wears. But is it really a pearl? Some years ago, the researcher Vincent Icke, an astronomer and artist, concluded that the dimensions and brightness of the pendant do not correspond to the true appearance of a pearl. It was then that he suggested another possibility: it could be a polished metal teardrop earring, made of silver or pewter.

The most widely accepted hypothesis holds that it is a pearl, but it could be an imitation pearl or a pearl that has sprouted from the painter's imagination. This would explain the large size of the earring. But whether it is a pearl or not, the interesting thing is how Vermeer creates another visual illusion: the presence of an earring.

If we stop carefully, we will see that the earring does not even have a hook to support it. Vermeer applies just two master strokes in white: one at the base and one higher up, reflecting the light that enters from the left. With that alone, Vermeer offers us a whole topic to debate. Vermeer is, therefore, a master of illusion and effect.

In any case, it is not the first time that Vermeer has worn sparkling earrings and pearls to adorn his characters. We see it in Study of a Young Woman; Young man with hat Red or He loves with his maid holding a letter.

Background

The colors of the young woman's outfit and the paleness of her face contrast with the dark green background of the piece. Recent studies indicate that this fund was originally a curtain. However, the wear and tear that the paint has suffered over time deteriorated the definition of the color and the texture. This is why it currently looks like a neutral background.

illumination

The lighting comes from the left side of the canvas. We barely discovered it because it is reflected directly on the girl's face, accentuating her forehead, nose and cheekbones. Her back, neck and ear remain in the dark, while the earring and part of the turban that falls from her receive a luminous touch.

We are in the presence of a very particular interpretation of tenebrism, because in the midst of a dark atmosphere, the painter highlights the high contrast between lights and shadows. It might remind us of Caravaggio, but it differs from him in the absence of drama and the tranquility of the scene, something very typical of Vermeer's style.

Vermeer's style

As in other works by Vermeer, in The girl of the pearl it achieves precise but softened and softened contours, in such a way that we perceive the figure as if it were alive before our eyes. All the elements are wrapped and harmonize with each other in a gentle way.

Vermeer executed very few works in his lifetime (little more than thirty), since he barely produced two or three paintings per year. In most of them, he represented intimate scenes such as mistresses and servants, domestic occupations and trades, among others. Some noteworthy examples are: The milkmaid, The astronomer, Geographer Y The art of painting.

These scenes had two elements in common: a window on the left to give entrance to the lighting and a table composed as a kind of still life with human characters. This allows us to suppose that Vermeer made his works in the same space, varying the elements. However, The girl of the pearl it is different from these compositions. It certainly keeps the lighting from left to right, but the context is removed: there is no window and no table. Why would Vermeer do this?

The pictorial genre of the painting

The girl of the pearl It is not a portrait, as the painting is. Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Vermeer's work belongs to a pictorial genre known as tronie, which means "face" or "head" in Dutch.

The tronie it consisted essentially of the study of character types. For example, it was used to study age traits or ethnic traits, as well as costumes and attributes associated with certain cultures or occupations. This genre was also used for the painter to demonstrate his artistic abilities to potential clients, as if it were a business card.

In short, the picture The girl of the pearl It is a study of the expression of a young maiden and the exotic costumes, which account for the commercial exchange with the Orient during that time. It is for this reason that the model's name was not registered.

Meaning of the box

For years the meaning of this canvas has been debated. In part, the intrigue is associated with two things: first, that there is no information about the identity of the model. Second, to the unusual pearl.

Since the piece is a study (a tronie), we could speculate that it is a face idealized by the painter. Be that as it may, the work has gained significance in contemporary culture. For our historical era, the young woman on this canvas represents an ideal of feminine beauty in the prime of life. And now, what about the pearl?

At that time it was common to represent women laden with jewels, not only for their social status, but as a metaphor for their outer and inner beauty. In this case, Vermeer concentrates the character's quality in just one earring of great brilliance and beauty. Perhaps that is why he has given free rein to her imagination by representing a "pearl" of singular size. In this way, the young and beautiful lady is presented with the greatest possible dignity: she is a one-of-a-kind jewel of her own.

It may interest you:

• Mona Lisa portrait by Leonardo da Vinci
• Baroque