Girl with a Pearl Earring - wikipedia Girl with a Pearl Earring For other uses, see Girl with a Pearl Earring ( disambiguation ). Girl with a Pearl Earring Dutch : Meisje met de parel Artist Johannes Vermeer Year c. 1665 Type Tronie Medium Oil on canvas 44.5 cm × 39 cm ( 17.5 in × 15 in ) Location Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands Girl with a Pearl Earring ( Dutch : Meisje met de parel ) is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. It is a tronie of a girl wearing a headscarf and a pearl earring. The painting has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902. In 2006, the Dutch public selected it as the most beautiful painting in the Netherlands. Contents 1 Description 2 Ownership and display 3 Painting technique 4 Cultural impact 5 References 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 External links Description The painting is a tronie, the Dutch 17th - century description of a ' head ' that was not meant to be a portrait. It depicts a European girl wearing an exotic dress, an oriental turban, and an improbably large pearl earring. In 2014, Dutch astrophysicist Vincent Icke raised doubts about the material of the earring and argued that it looks more like polished tin than pearl on the grounds of the specular reflection, the pear shape and the large size of the earring. The work is oil on canvas and is 44.5 cm ( 17.5 in ) high and 39 cm ( 15 in ) wide. It is signed `` IVMeer '' but not dated. It is estimated to have been painted around 1665. After the most recent restoration of the painting in 1994, the subtle colour scheme and the intimacy of the girl 's gaze toward the viewer have been greatly enhanced. During the restoration, it was discovered that the dark background, today somewhat mottled, was initially intended by the painter to be a deep enamel - like green. This effect was produced by applying a thin transparent layer of paint, called a glaze, over the present - day black background. However, the two organic pigments of the green glaze, indigo and weld, have faded. Ownership and display Mauritshuis in The Hague, 2011. On the advice of Victor de Stuers, who for years tried to prevent Vermeer 's rare works from being sold to parties abroad, Arnoldus Andries des Tombe purchased the work at an auction in The Hague in 1881, for only two guilders with a thirty cents buyer 's premium ( around € 24 at current purchasing power ). At the time, it was in poor condition. Des Tombe had no heirs and donated this and other paintings to the Mauritshuis in 1902. In 2012, as part of a traveling exhibition while the Mauritshuis was being renovated and expanded, the painting was exhibited in Japan at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, and in 2013 -- 2014 the United States, where it was shown at the High Museum in Atlanta, the de Young Museum in San Francisco and in New York City at the Frick Collection. Later in 2014 it was exhibited in Bologna, Italy. In June 2014, it returned to the Mauritshuis museum which stated that the painting will not leave the museum in the future. Painting technique The painting was investigated by the scientists of the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage and FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics ( AMOLF ) Amsterdam. The ground is dense and yellowish in color and is composed of chalk, lead white, ochre and very little black. The dark background of the painting contains bone black, weld ( luteolin, reseda luteola ), chalk, small amounts of red ochre, and indigo. The face and draperies were painted mainly using ochres, natural ultramarine, bone black, charcoal black and lead white. In February - March 2018 an international team of art experts spent two weeks studying the painting in a specially constructed glass workshop in the museum, open to observation by the public. The non-invasive research project included removing the work from its frame for study with microscopes, X-ray equipment and a special scanner to learn more about the methods and materials used by Vermeer. Cultural impact Tracy Chevalier wrote a historical novel, also entitled Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 1999 ), fictionalizing the circumstances of the painting 's creation. In the novel, Johannes Vermeer becomes close with a fictional servant named Griet ( based on Chevalier 's close friend Georgia Kendall ), whom he hires as an assistant and has sit for him as a painting model while wearing his wife 's pearl earrings. The novel inspired a 2003 film and 2008 play of the same name. The 2003 film stars Scarlett Johansson as Griet, the girl with the pearl earring and Colin Firth as Vermeer. Johansson was nominated for various awards including a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The painting also appears in the 2007 film St Trinian 's, when a group of unruly schoolgirls steal it to raise funds to save their school. English street artist Banksy has recreated the painting as a mural in Bristol, replacing the pearl earring with an alarm box and calling the artwork Girl with a Pierced Eardrum. References ^ Jump up to : Girl with a Pearl Earring, Mauritshuis. Retrieved on 8 December 2014. Jump up ^ ( in Dutch ) Meisje met de parel, Mauritshuis. Retrieved on 8 December 2014. ^ Jump up to : Pieters, Janene ( February 1, 2018 ). `` '' Girl with a Pearl Earring '' to be scanned, analyzed in public view ``. NLTimes. Retrieved March 20, 2018. Jump up ^ ( in Dutch ) Icke, V., Meisje met geen parel ( translation : Girl with no pearl earring ), Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Natuurkunde 80, 12, 418 -- 419 ( december 2009 ) ( Dutch Journal of Physics ) Jump up ^ ( in Dutch ) Joris Janssen, `` Curieuze ontdekking : Meisje met de parel heeft geen parel '', New Scientist, 2014. Retrieved on 8 December 2014. Jump up ^ Details : Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665, Mauritshuis. Retrieved on 9 December 2014. Jump up ^ Wadum, Jørgen ( 1994 ), Vermeer illuminated. Conservation, Restoration and Research., With contributions by L. Struik van der Loeff and R. Hoppenbrouwers, The Hague Jump up ^ `` Value of the guilder / euro ''. www.iisg.nl. Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 06. Jump up ^ Vrij Nederland ( magazine ) ( February 26, 1996 ), p. 35 -- 69. Jump up ^ Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals : Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis, Frick Collection. Jump up ^ Lestienne, Cécile. `` Grounded : the great art treasures that no longer go out on the road ''. the Guardian. Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 06. Jump up ^ Groen, Karin M ; Van der Werf, I.D. ; van den Berg, K.J. ; Boon, J.J. ( January 1, 1998 ). `` The Scientific Examination of Vermeer 's Girl with a Pearl Earring, in Gaskell, I. and Jonker, M., Vermeer Studies, in Studies in the History of Art, 55, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1998, pp. 169 - 183 ''. Retrieved February 2, 2018. Jump up ^ Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, illustrated pigment analysis at ColourLex. Jump up ^ `` The secrets of Girl with a Pearl Earring ''. BBC. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018. Jump up ^ Griet is asked to wear both earrings in the novel even though only one will be visible. Winant, Johanna ( 2000 - 01 - 26 ), `` Novel paints a picture of a famous painting '', Chicago Tribune, pp. Tempo, pg. 3 Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger ( 2003 - 12 - 26 ), `` ' Girl ' painted in subtle shades '', Chicago Sun - Times, p. 43 Jump up ^ Billington, Michael ( 2008 - 10 - 01 ), `` Pearl 's delicate shades get lost in the broad canvas of the stage '', The Guardian, p. 36 Jump up ^ `` The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards ( 2004 ) ''. hfpa.org. Retrieved 13 March 2004. Jump up ^ `` Actress in a Leading Role in 2004 ''. bafta.org. Retrieved 13 March 2004. Jump up ^ Mark Jenkins, `` St. Trinian 's Girls Are n't As Bad As They Wanna Be '', NPR, 2009. Retrieved on 9 December 2014. Jump up ^ `` New Banksy ' earring ' mural appears in Bristol Harbourside -- BBC News ''. Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 06. See also The Miniaturist, another historical novel set in 17th Amsterdam Further reading Art portal Liedtke, Walter A ( 2001 ). Vermeer and the Delft School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870999734. OCLC 893698712. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer. In - depth view of the Girl with a Pearl Earring An investigation into the illumination of Vermeer 's Girl with a Pearl Earring Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, ColourLex February 2018 NYT Article hide Johannes Vermeer Paintings The Allegory of Faith The Art of Painting The Astronomer Christ in the House of Martha and Mary The Concert Diana and Her Companions The Geographer A Girl Asleep Girl Interrupted at Her Music Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window Girl with a Flute Girl with a Pearl Earring Girl with a Red Hat The Girl with the Wine Glass The Guitar Player The Lacemaker Lady Seated at a Virginal Lady Standing at a Virginal Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid A Lady Writing a Letter The Little Street The Love Letter The Milkmaid Mistress and Maid The Music Lesson Officer and Laughing Girl Portrait of a Young Woman The Procuress Saint Praxedis View of Delft The Wine Glass Woman Holding a Balance Woman in Blue Reading a Letter Woman with a Lute Woman with a Pearl Necklace Woman with a Water Jug A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals Other Dutch Golden Age painting Delft School ( painting ) Dutch School ( painting ) Genre painting Genre art Naturalism ( art ) Tronie Flemish Baroque painting Netherlandish art Art of the Dutch Golden Age Baroque art Hockney -- Falco thesis Related Maria Thins ( mother - in - law ) Pieter van Ruijven ( patron ) Han van Meegeren Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Scholarship Théophile Thoré - Bürger Jonathan Janson Walter Liedtke John Michael Montias Laura J. Snyder Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Cultural depictions and portrayals The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table ( 1934 painting ) Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 1999 novel ) Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 2003 film ) Chasing Vermeer ( 2004 novel ) Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 2008 play ) Vermeer 's Hat ( 2008 history book ) Tim 's Vermeer ( 2013 documentary film ) BNF : cb12548725b ( data ) GND : 4388184 - 1 LCCN : no2003027768 RKDimages ID : 24956 VIAF : 174026082 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring&oldid=850280727 '' Categories : 1660s paintings Paintings by Johannes Vermeer Paintings of the Mauritshuis Portraits of women Hidden categories : Articles with Dutch - language external links Pages using infobox artwork with the material parameter Articles containing Dutch - language text All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014 Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with RKDID identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk پنجابی پښتو Polski Português Română Русский Scots සිංහල Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் ไทย Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 45 more Edit links This page was last edited on 14 July 2018, at 22 : 23 ( UTC ). 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Question: who painted the lady with the pearl earring
Answer: Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer