Girl with a Pearl Earring is Vermeer’s most famous painting. It is not a portrait, but a ‘tronie’ – a painting of an imaginary figure. Tronies depict a certain type or character; in this case, a girl in exotic dress, wearing an oriental turban and an improbably large pearl in her ear.
Johannes Vermeer was a master of light. His studio workspace was set up so that the light source came from the left side and that is clear in many of his paintings. It is shown here in the softness of the girl’s face and the glimmers of light on her moist lips. And of course, the shining pearl.
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