Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 2003 ) PG-13 | A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 35 titles created 12 Aug 2012 a list of 38 titles created 06 Jan 2013 a list of 37 titles created 05 Aug 2013 a list of 44 titles created 19 Jan 2014 a list of 24 titles created 20 Oct 2014 Title: Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) 7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 41 nominations. See more awards » Videos Two sisters contend for the affection of King Henry VIII. Director: Justin Chadwick A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work. Director: Julie Taymor A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life. Director: Saul Dibb 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen and ultimately the fall of Versailles. Director: Sofia Coppola A film of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.

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Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge. Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti Edit Storyline This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With a Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. Little is known about the girl in the painting, it is speculated that she was a maid who lived in the house of the painter along with his family and other servants, though there is no historical evidence. This masterful film attempts to recreate the mysterious girl's life. Griet, played by Scarlett Johansson, is a maid in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer, played by British actor Colin Firth. Vermeer's wealthy patron and sole means of support, Van Ruijven, commissions him to paint Griet with the intent that he will have her for himself before it is finished.

She must somehow secretly pose for the crucial painting without the knowledge of Vermeer's wife, avoid Van Ruijven's grasp, and protect herself from the cruel gossip of the world of a 17th century servant. Written by thexotherxchris Did You Know? Trivia Although Vermeer and the painting both are real historic figures, the screenplay is based on Tracy Chevalier 's novel and therefore largely fictional or hypothetical. Only 36 Vermeer paintings are known to exist today, and none of the models has ever been positively identified. A poster of the painting in her bedroom inspired Chevalier to write her own version of how it came to exist, based on the framework of Vermeer's known history. Chevalier sold the film rights and opted not to have any involvement in the film or screenplay, although after its release said that she was pleased with the results. See more » Goofs After her ear has been pierced, Griet picks up the earring and begins to hand it to Vermeer. In the next shot, she is picking it up off the table again.

See more » Quotes Girl With a Pearl Earring: Amazon.co.uk: Tracy Chevalier: 9780006513209: Books Girl With a Pearl Earring Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Apple To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. or Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Product details Publisher: HarperCollins; New edition edition (14 July 2000) Language: English Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 1.5 x 12.8 cm Average Customer Review: Product Description Amazon Review The Dutch painter Vermeer has remained one of the great enigmas of 17th-century Dutch art.

While little is known of his personal life, his extraordinary paintings of natural and domestic life, with their subtle play of light and colour, have come to define the Dutch Golden Age. The mysterious portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has fascinated art historians for centuries, and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title. Girl with a Pearl Earring centres on Vermeer's prosperous household in Delft in the 1660s. The appointment of the quiet, perceptive heroine of the novel, the servant Griet, gradually throws the household into turmoil as Vermeer and Griet become increasingly intimate, an increasingly tense situation that culminates in her working for Vermeer as his assistant, and ultimately sitting for him as a model. Chevalier deliberately cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style in homage to Vermeer, and the complex domestic tensions of the Vermeer household are vividly evoked, from the jealous, vain, young wife to the wise, taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic, but Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist in its tail.

Chevalier acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study of the Dutch Golden Age, The Embarrassment of Riches , and the novel comes hard on the heels of Deborah Moggach's similar tale of domestic intrigue behind the easel of 17th-century Dutch painting, Tulip Fever . Girl with a Pearl Earring is a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, but how much more can novelists extract from the Dutch Golden Age? --Jerry Brotton Review ‘Beautifully written, mysterious and almost unbearably poignant – a magical experience.’ Deborah Moggach ‘A jewel of a novel.’ Time 'Chevalier's book is a delight' Simon Jenkins, Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Author Bio - PLG_CONTENT_PAGEBREAK_PAGE_NUM - LitLovers • Education—B.A., Oberlin College (USA); M.A., University of East Anglia (UK) • Currently—lives in London, UK Raised in Washington D.C., Tracy Chevalier moved to England in 1984 after graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio. Initially intending to attend one semester abroad, she studied for a semester and never returned.

After working as a literary editor for several years, Chevalier chose to pursue her own writing career and in 1994, she graduated with a degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. The Virgin Blue (her first novel), was chosen by W. H. Smith for its Fresh Talent promotion in 1997. She lives in London with her husband and son and hopes to see all of Vermeer's thirty-five known paintings in her lifetime (thus far, she's seen twenty-eight of them). Tracy Chevalier first gained attention by imagining the answer to one of art history's small but intriguing questions: Who is the subject of Johannes Vermeer's painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring"? It was a bold move on Chevalier's part to build a story around the somewhat mysterious 17th-century Dutch painter and his unassuming but luminous subject; but the author's purist approach helped set the tone. In an interview with her college's alumni magazine, she commented: I decided early on that I wanted [Girl] to be a simple story, simply told, and to imitate with words what Vermeer was doing with paint.

That may sound unbelievably pretentious, but I didn't mean it as "I can do Vermeer in words." I wanted to write it in a way that Vermeer would have painted: very simple lines, simple compositions, not a lot of clutter, and not a lot of superfluous characters. Chevalier achieved her objective expertly, helped by the fact that she employed the famous Girl as narrator of the story. Sixteen-year-old Griet becomes a maid in Vermeer's tumultuous household, developing an apprentice relationship with the painter while drawing attention from other men and jealousy from women. Praise for the novel poured in: "Chevalier's exploration into the soul of this complex but naïve young woman is moving, and her depiction of 17th-century Delft is marvelously evocative," wrote the New York Times Book Review. The Wall Street Journal called it "vibrant and sumptuous." Girl with a Pearl Earring was not Chevalier's first exploration of the past. In The Virgin Blue, her U.K.-published first novel (U.S.

edition, 2003), her modern-day character Ella Turner goes back to 16th-century France in order to revisit her family history. As a result, she finds parallels between herself and a troubled ancestor — a woman whose fate had been unknown until Ella discovers it. With 2001's Falling Angels, Chevalier — a former reference book editor who began her fiction career by enrolling in the graduate writing program at University of East Anglia — continued to tell stories of women in the past. But she has been open about the fact that compared to writing Girl with a Pearl Earring, the "nightmare" creating of her third novel was difficult and fraught with complications, even tears. The pressure of her previous success, coupled with a first draft that wasn't working out, made Chevalier want to abandon the effort altogether. Then, reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible led Chevalier to change her approach. "[Kingsolver] did such a fantastic job using different voices and I thought, with Falling Angels, I've told it in the wrong way," Chevalier told Bookpage magazine.

"I wanted it to have lots of perspective." With that, Chevalier began a rewrite of her tale about two families in the first decade of 20th-century London. With more than ten narrators (some more prominent than others), Falling Angels has perspective in spades and lots to maintain interest over its relatively brief span: a marriage in trouble, a girlhood friendship born at Highgate Cemetery, a woman's introduction to the suffragette movement. A spirited, fast-paced story, Falling Angels again earned critical praise. "This moving, bittersweet book flaunts Chevalier's gift for creating complex characters and an engaging plot," Book magazine concluded. Chevalier continues to pursue her fascination with art and history in her fourth novel, on which she is currently at work. According to Oberlin Alumni Magazine, she is basing the book on the "Lady and the Unicorn" medieval tapestries that hang in Paris's Cluny Museum. Extras From a 2003 Barnes & Noble interview: • Chevalier's interest in Vermeer extends beyond a fascination with one painting. "I have always loved Vermeer's paintings," Chevalier writes on her Web site.

"One of my life goals is to view all thirty-five of them in the flesh. I've seen all but one — ‘Young Girl Reading a Letter' — which hangs in Dresden. There is so much mystery in each painting, in the women he depicts, so many stories suggested but not told. I wanted to tell one of them." • Chevalier moved from the States to London in 1984. "I intended to stay six months," she writes. "I'm still here." She lives near Highgate Cemetery with her husband and son. • The film version of Girl with a Pearl Earring was released 2003 with Scarlett Johansson in the role of Griet and Colin Firth playing Vermeer. • When asked what book most influenced her life as a writer, here is her response: It's impossible to list just one! I would say more generally— books that I read when I was a girl, that showed me how different worlds can be brought to life for a reader. My aunt likes to quote that when I was young I once said I was never alone when I had a book to read.

(I don't remember saying that, but my aunt isn't prone to lying.) Those companions would be books like the Laura Ingalls Wilder series; Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; The Egypt Game by Zylpha Keatley Snyder; "The Dark Is Rising" series by Susan Cooper; The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken plus subsequent books in that series; and of course The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. • Other favorite books include: Pride and Prejudice (Austen), The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner), Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), Alias Grace (Atwood), and Song of Solomon (Morrison).

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.5 Tf [(About the Book)] TJ ET BT 41.516 462.628 Td 1.008 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(In mid-career, the renowned 17th century Baroque artist Johannes Vermeer painted "Girl with a Pearl Earring," which )] TJ ET BT 41.516 444.957 Td 1.917 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(has been called the Dutch Mona Lisa.

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In order to )] TJ ET BT 41.516 376.942 Td 2.080 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(bring income to her struggling family, Griet must work as a maid for a more financially sound family. When Jan )] TJ ET BT 41.516 359.271 Td 1.207 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(Vermeer and his wife approve of Griet as a maid for their growing Catholic household, she leaves home and quickly )] TJ ET BT 41.516 341.599 Td 1.194 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(enters adult life. The Vermeer household, with its five children, grandmother and long-time servant, is ready to make )] TJ ET BT 41.516 323.928 Td 0.376 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(Griet's working life difficult. Though her help is sorely needed, her beauty and innocence are both coveted and resented.

)] TJ ET BT 41.516 306.256 Td 0.254 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(Vermeer's wife Catharina, long banished from her husband's studio for her clumsiness and lack of genuine interest in art, )] TJ ET BT 41.516 288.585 Td 0.640 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(is immediately wary of Griet, a visually talented girl who exhibits signs of artistic promise. Taneke, the faithful servant )] TJ ET BT 41.516 270.913 Td 0.000 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(to the grandmother, proves her protective loyalty by keeping a close eye on Griet's every move.)] TJ ET BT 41.516 238.242 Td 0.804 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(The artist himself, however, holds another view entirely of the young maid.

Recognizing Griet's talents, Vermeer takes )] TJ ET BT 41.516 220.570 Td 0.255 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(her on as his studio assistant and surreptitiously teaches her to grind paints and develop color palettes in the remote attic. )] TJ ET BT 41.516 202.899 Td 0.739 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(Though reluctant to overstep her boundaries in the cagey Vermeer household, Griet is overjoyed both to work with her )] TJ ET BT 41.516 185.227 Td 0.300 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(intriguing master and to lend some breath to her natural inclinations�colors and composition�neither of which she had )] TJ ET BT 41.516 167.556 Td 0.296 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(ever been able to develop.

Together, Vermeer and Griet conceal the apprenticeship from the family until Vermeer's most )] TJ ET BT 41.516 149.884 Td 1.758 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(prominent patron demands that the lovely maid be the subject of his next commissioned work. Vermeer must paint )] TJ ET BT 41.516 132.213 Td 0.000 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(Griet�an awkward, charged situation for them both.)] TJ ET BT 41.516 99.541 Td 1.787 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(Chevalier's account of the artistic process�from the grinding of paints to the inclusion and removal of background )] TJ ET BT 41.516 81.870 Td 1.775 Tw /F1 10.5 Tf [(objects�lay at the core of the novel.

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able Creatures and The Last Runaway Translated into thirty-nine languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film, starring Scarlett Johanson and Colin Firth Tracy Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly-imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings.

History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius . . . even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil. What people are saying - Write a review User ratings Review: Girl With a Pearl Earring User Review - Olivia - Goodreads This book is interestingly stale. I felt like I was reading the ending of a story the whole time. Every few pages had me seeking the ending. I could not connect to any of the characters, not even ... Read full review Review: Girl With a Pearl Earring User Review - Larae - Goodreads Another good one from my own library...really makes me want to see those paintings in person! Good to know that there are a couple at museums in the US. Maybe I will actually get to see them.

Read full review View all » Common terms and phrases Agnes Aleydis apothecary apron asked attic baby baker’s began blue cloth butcher camera obscura canal Catharina chair chemise colors Cornelia corner Crucifixion room cupboard Delft didn’t door doorway dress earrings easel eyes face felt Franciscus Frans front gazed girl grey Griet hair hallway hand harpsichord head heard jewelry box Johannes knew knife laundry Leeuwenhoek linseed oil Lisbeth looked madam Maertge maid mantle Maria Thins Market Square master Meat Hall Mechelen mistress morning mother moved never nodded Oude Langendijck painting palette knife pearls Pieter the father Pieter the son powder�brush pulled Ruijven Ruijven’s wife She’s shutters sitting smiled stairs stall stared stepped stood stopped storeroom street Sunday Tanneke tell There’s things thought tiles told took Tracy Chevalier turned van Ruijven voice waiting walked wall wanted washing watched wear window woman yellow You’re About the author (2001) "I was born and grew up in Washington, DC. After getting a BA in English from Oberlin College (Ohio), I moved to London, England in 1984.

I intended to stay 6 months; I’m still here. "As a kid I’d often said I wanted to be a writer because I loved books and wanted to be associated with them. I wrote the odd story in high school, but it was only in my twenties that I started writing ‘real’ stories, at night and on weekends. Sometimes I wrote a story in a couple evenings; other times it took me a whole year to complete one. "Once I took a night class in creative writing, and a story I’d written for it was published in a London-based magazine called Fiction. I was thrilled, even though the magazine folded 4 months later. I worked as a reference book editor for several years until 1993 when I left my job and did a year-long MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (England). My tutors were the English novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. For the first time in my life I was expected to write every day, and I found I liked it. I also finally had an idea I considered ‘big’ enough to fill a novel. I began The Virgin Blue during that year, and continued it once the course was over, juggling writing with freelance editing.

"An agent is essential to getting published. I found my agent Jonny Geller through dumb luck and good timing. A friend from the MA course had just signed on with him and I sent my manuscript of The Virgin Blue mentioning my friend’s name. Jonny was just starting as an agent and needed me as much as I needed him. Since then he’s become a highly respected agent in the UK and I’ve gone along for the ride." From the Trade Paperback edition. Bibliographic information Girl With a Pearl Earring : Tracy Chevalier : 9780007232161 Girl With a Pearl Earring Paperback US$7.55 US$12.64 You save US$5.09 Free delivery worldwide Add to basket Add to wishlist Description An international bestseller with over two million copies sold, this is a story of an artist's desire for beauty and the ultimate corruption of innocence. 17th Century Holland. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer in the town of Delft, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry and the care of his six children.

But as she becomes part of his world and his work, their growing intimacy spreads tension and deception in the ordered household and, as the scandal seeps out, into the town beyond. Tracy Chevalier's extraordinary historical novel on the corruption of innocence and the price of genius is a contemporary classic perfect for fans of Sarah Dunant and Philippa Gregory. show more Product details 128 x 192 x 18mm | 158.76g Publication date Science Fiction Review quote 'A portrait of radiance...Tracy Chevalier brings the real artist Vermeer and a fictional muse to life in a jewel of a novel' Time 'Chevalier doesn't put a foot wrong in this triumphant work ...

It is a beautifully written tale that mirrors the elegance of the painting that inspired it' Wall Street Journal 'It has a slow, magical current of its own that picks you up and carries you stealthily along...a beautiful story, lovingly told by a very talented writer' Daily Mail 'A wonderful novel, mysterious, steeped in atmosphere, deeply revealing about the process of painting...truly magical' Guardian show more About Tracy Chevalier Tracy Chevalier is the author of six novels, including the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, Remarkable Creatures, The Virgin Blue, Falling Angels, and The Lady and the Unicorn. Born in Washington, DC, she moved to London in 1984, where she lives with her husband and son. She has a website at show more Review Text A sumptuous new look for Tracy Chevalier's first two novels, which will help to introduce her books to a new range of fans. )Girl With A Pearl Earring(, the story of Vermeer and his artistic muse is her most famous book and was successfully adapted for cinema. )Falling Angels( concerns the intertwined lives of two English families at the beginning of the 20th century.

show more Customer reviews Title says it all! I was set to read this book as part of my english course at school, and i was expecting a long dull story with lots of eyelid drooping speeches and pointless ideas. I was delightedly surprised to find a deep, complicated story of a girl trying to find her way in the world while staying true to herself. Griet's story is sad, heart wrenching and truly unforgettable. Based on the painting, Girl with the Pearl Earring will set your heart aflame for this young girl and the choices she must make. show more by Lotti Moroney Girl with a Pearl Earring: A Novel: Tracy Chevalier: 9780452282155: Books - Amazon.ca Product Description From Amazon With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age.

His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries--and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title. Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist. Throughout, Chevalier cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style, whose exactitude is an effective homage to the painter himself.

Even Griet's most humdrum duties take on a high if unobtrusive gloss: I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white lead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground, the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical. In assembling such quotidian particulars, the author acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study The Embarrassment of Riches . Her novel also joins a crop of recent, painterly fictions, including Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever and Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue . Can novelists extract much more from the Dutch golden age? The question is an open one--but in the meantime, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, and an appealingly new take on an old master. --Jerry Brotton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly The scant confirmed facts about the life of Vermeer, and the relative paucity of his masterworks, continues to be provoke to the literary imagination, as witnessed by this third fine fictional work on the Dutch artist in the space of 13 months. Not as erotic or as deviously suspenseful as Katharine Weber's The Music Lesson, or as original in conception as Susan Vreeland's interlinked short stories, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Chevalier's first novel succeeds on its own merits. Through the eyes of its protagonist, the modest daughter of a tile maker who in 1664 is forced to work as a maid in the Vermeer household because her father has gone blind, Chevalier presents a marvelously textured picture of 17th-century Delft. The physical appearance of the city is clearly delineated, as is its rigidly defined class system, the grinding poverty of the working people and the prejudice against Catholics among the Protestant majority. From the very first, 16-year-old narrator Griet establishes herself as a keen observer who sees the world in sensuous images, expressed in precise and luminous prose.

Through her vision, the personalities of coolly distant Vermeer, his emotionally volatile wife, Catharina, his sharp-eyed and benevolently powerful mother-in-law, Maria Thins, and his increasing brood of children are traced with subtle shading, and the strains and jealousies within the household potently conveyed. With equal skill, Chevalier describes the components of a painting: how colors are mixed from apothecary materials, how the composition of a work is achieved with painstaking care. She also excels in conveying the inflexible class system, making it clear that to members of the wealthy elite, every member of the servant class is expendable. Griet is almost ruined when Vermeer, impressed by her instinctive grasp of color and composition, secretly makes her his assistant, and later demands that she pose for him wearing Catharina's pearl earrings. While Chevalier develops the tension of this situation with skill, several other devices threaten to rob the narrative of its credibility. Griet's ability to suggest to Vermeer how to improve a painting demands one stretch of the reader's imagination. And Vermeer's acknowledgment of his debt to her, revealed in the denouement, is a blatant nod to sentimentality.

Still, this is a completely absorbing story with enough historical authenticity and artistic intuition to mark Chevalier as a talented newcomer to the literary scene. Agent, Deborah Schneider. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier - Reading Guide - PenguinRandomHouse.com Questions and Topics for Discussion INTRODUCTION In mid-career, the renowned 17th century Baroque artist Johannes Vermeer painted “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” which has been called the Dutch Mona Lisa. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story behind the advent of this famous painting, all the while depicting life in 17th century Delft, a small Dutch city with a burgeoning art community. The novel centers on Griet, the Protestant daughter of a Delft tile painter who lost his sight in a kiln accident. In order to bring income to her struggling family, Griet must work as a maid for a more financially sound family. When Jan Vermeer and his wife approve of Griet as a maid for their growing Catholic household, she leaves home and quickly enters adult life.

The Vermeer household, with its five children, grandmother and long-time servant, is ready to make Griet’s working life difficult. Though her help is sorely needed, her beauty and innocence are both coveted and resented. Vermeer’s wife Catharina, long banished from her husband’s studio for her clumsiness and lack of genuine interest in art, is immediately wary of Griet, a visually talented girl who exhibits signs of artistic promise. Taneke, the faithful servant to the grandmother, proves her protective loyalty by keeping a close eye on Griet’s every move. The artist himself, however, holds another view entirely of the young maid. Recognizing Griet’s talents, Vermeer takes her on as his studio assistant and surreptitiously teaches her to grind paints and develop color palettes in the remote attic. Though reluctant to overstep her boundaries in the cagey Vermeer household, Griet is overjoyed both to work with her intriguing master and to lend some breath to her natural inclinations—colors and composition—neither of which she had ever been able to develop.

Together, Vermeer and Griet conceal the apprenticeship from the family until Vermeer’s most prominent patron demands that the lovely maid be the subject of his next commissioned work. Vermeer must paint Griet—an awkward, charged situation for them both. Chevalier’s account of the artistic process—from the grinding of paints to the inclusion and removal of background objects—lay at the core of the novel. Her inventive portrayal of this tumultuous time, when Protestantism began to dominate Catholicism and the growing bourgeoisie took the place of the Church as patrons of the arts, draws the reader into a lively, if little known, time and place in history. A LITTLE BACKGROUND The Baroque period is remembered less by one specific style of art than as a period of time. Derived from the Portuguese “barocco” for “irregular pearl,” Baroque was comprised of many diversions from Biblically based Renaissance painting. The Protestant Reformation unleashed artists from rote depictions of scenes from the Bible and allowed them to venture into increasingly more interesting domestic domains. Ladies of the day would pose before silent musical instruments in rooms adorned with the trappings of success, like maps of newly explored territories and shelves with expensive volumes of books.

As the merchant class gained monetary status in the community, so did their desire to be painted, just as royalty was just a few decades earlier. Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), a native of Delft who never left the small city, relied on the bourgeoisie for his living. A converted Catholic for his wedding day, Vermeer struggled to support a large family. Many of his paintings depict the wives or daughters of his Protestant patrons caught in the middle of common household actions—pouring a pitcher of water, writing a letter, or playing an instrument. He strove for realism, going so far as to blend sand in his paints to create an accurate texture of bricks in the famous portrait of his hometown, “View of Delft.” The most well known departure from Vermeer’s calculated paintings is the intriguing, mysterious subject of “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” thought to be painted in 1665. In the painting, a young woman, adorned in an unusual head wrap and wearing a prominent pearl-drop earring, turns to face the painter over her left shoulder—eyes sympathetic and slightly lowered, mouth demurely parted.

The moment captured by the painting is captivating—sexually charged yet undeniably innocent. This is the subject of Chevalier’s novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring. The novel both recognizes the painting’s historic and artistic intensity and monopolizes on that intensity to create a fascinating story of a young girl in a small city during a unique period of time. Few authors could make the leaps necessary to enliven a centuries-old painting for modern readers. Tracy Chevalier achieves all this and more, keeping her audience wondering what the novel’s outcome will bring as well as what facts their art history texts hold. Readers and art lovers alike will find this novel engaging, evocative, and insightful. ABOUT TRACY CHEVALIER Raised in Washington D.C., Tracy Chevalier moved to England in 1984 after graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio. Initially intending to attend one semester abroad, she studied for a semester and never returned. After working as a literary editor for several years, Chevalier chose to pursue her own writing career and in 1994, she graduated with a degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, The Virgin Blue, was chosen by W. H.

Smith for its Fresh Talent promotion in 1997. She lives in London with her husband and son and hopes to see all of Vermeer’s thirty-five known paintings in her lifetime (thus far, she’s seen twenty-eight of them). AN INTERVIEW WITH TRACY CHEVALIER Everyday life in 17th century Delft is so vivid in Girl with a Pearl Earring. How did you conduct your research? Where? Most of it, I confess, was done in my armchair. I read a lot (especially Simon Schama’s The Embarrassment Of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in The Golden Age) and looked at a lot of paintings. Luckily 17th-century Dutch paintings are mainly scenes from everyday life and so it was easy to see what houses looked like inside and how they were run. I also went to Delft for four days and just wandered around, taking it in. Vermeer’s house no longer exists, but there are plenty of 17th-century buildings still left, as well as the Market Square, the Meat Hall, the canals and bridges. It’s not hard to get an idea of what it was like then.

Little is known of Vermeer’s life—at least compared with other Baroque painters like Rembrandt. Why did you choose Vermeer’s work to write about? I chose Vermeer’s work because it is so beautiful and so mysterious. In his paintings, the solitary women going about their domestic tasks—pouring milk, reading letters, weighing gold, putting on a necklace—inhabit a world that we are getting a secret glimpse at. And because it feels secret—the women don’t seem to know we’re looking at them—it seems also that something else is going on underneath, something mysterious we can’t quite grasp. The fact that so little is known about Vermeer was happenstance—happily so, as it turned out, for it meant I could make up a lot without worrying about things being “true” or not. Were you inspired by this particular painting or by Vermeer’s work in general? I was inspired specifically by this particular painting, though I know his other work as well. A poster of this painting has hung on the wall of my bedroom since I was nineteen and I often lie in bed and look at it and wonder about it. It’s such an open painting. I’m never sure what the girl is thinking or what her expression is.

Sometimes she seems sad, other times seductive. So, one morning a couple years ago I was lying in bed worrying about what I was going to write next, and I looked up at the painting and wondered what Vermeer did or said to the model to get her to look like that. And right then I made up the story. Is Girl with a Pearl Earring a true story? To what extent is it based in fact? It isn’t a true story. No one knows who the girl is, or in fact who any of the people in his paintings are. Very little is known about Vermeer—he left no writings, not even any drawings, just 35 paintings. The few known facts are based on legal documents—his baptism, his marriage, the births of his children, his will. I was careful to be true to the known facts; for instance, he married Catharina Bolnes and they had eleven surviving children.

Other facts are not so clear-cut and I had to make choices: he may or may not have lived in the house of his mother-in-law (I decided he did); he converted to Catholicism at the time of his marriage but not necessarily because Catharina was Catholic (I decided he did); he may have been friends with the scientist Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who invented the microscope (I decided he was). But there was a lot I simply made up. You chose to give your novel the same title as the painting. Is there a greater purpose for this? What sort of a relationship do you see the novel and the painting having? The novel has the same name as the painting because the painting is the culmination of the story; its creation is what the story is leading up to. It also points up the earring, which is important as a symbol because it represents the world Griet gets drawn into and ultimately rejected from. The novel could not exist without the painting. I would never have written it, and I don’t think it would have the same resonance with readers if the painting didn’t exist. Do you paint? If not, how did you learn about the process and tools?

I don’t paint, though I did take a painting class while writing this book so I could find out a little about how it’s done. I was absolutely awful at it, but I learned a lot. I also read about Vermeer’s painting technique, and spoke with the woman who restored the painting for the 1996 Vermeer exhibition. She was able to explain to me some of the finer details of how he painted. As for the paints and how they were made, I found some old books about making paints and learned from them. I also bought some linseed oil (which is mixed with pigment to make paint) and left the bottle open as I was writing so that I could smell what they would have smelled. 17th century literature reflected religious and social changes just like 17th century painting. Milton’s radical Paradise Lost was published during this time. Did you consider this sort of thing when writing an historical novel? I didn’t consider Paradise Lost, but clearly religious change in the Netherlands at the time was a very important issue. The Dutch had just thrown off the rule of the Catholic Spanish and were keen to distance themselves from Catholicism. Protestantism suited their natures.

The Dutch Catholics were tolerated but were seen as slightly outside the system, which is fascinating when you consider that Vermeer actually converted to Catholicism, and so chose to be a maverick. You have to consider religious and social change when writing historical novels. They are essential to the push and pull of the story. In fact, all my novels are historical and set during periods of great social change. My first novel, The Virgin Blue (published in Britain), is set during the 16th century Reformation in France, and the novel I’m working on now is set in England at the beginning of the 20th century and up through World War I. While reading the novel, I couldn’t help examining and re-examining the painting every few pages. Did you write the novel with the painting at hand? Oh yes. With all his paintings, in fact. I kept the catalogue from the 1996 Vermeer exhibition almost permanently open. Most of the characters’ looks are based on people in his other paintings. In fact, if you want to see which paintings link to which people, check out the book’s website at Did you know how the story ended before you started writing? Yes.

I had the whole story worked out (except for the odd detail) before I started writing. This is unusual for me. Often I know only some of the story before I start writing. This book was a dream to write because of that and because the style is so spare. Why the camera obscura*? It plays such an important part, lending all sorts of ideas about technology and foreshadowing what’s to come. *For more information on the camera obscura, visit the book’s website at The camera obscura is a tangible representation of a different way of looking. Griet has the capacity to look in a different way, but she needs Vermeer to show her how. He does that partly with the help of the camera obscura. It also reminds us that in order to see clearly you have to focus, shut out the world and look at one corner of a room. That is what Vermeer’s paintings do—they reveal the world in a room. That is also what the novel tries to do—it is deliberately narrow and focused, and in it is a whole world. What’s next? Are you ready to work on another historical novel? Yes.

The next novel is set in a Victorian cemetery in London at the turn of the century and up through World War I. It’s about two girls whose families have adjacent plots at the cemetery, and the apprentice gravedigger they meet there. In a wider sense the book is about the changing values at the beginning of the modern era, looked at through the changing attitudes to death and mourning. The Victorians bought elaborate tombs for their dead and followed strict and elaborate mourning rituals, but by the end of World War I graves became much simpler and mourning was conducted in private. Why did this change occur? The book attempts to answer that. I can’t seem to write a contemporary novel. I suppose I’m more comfortable in the past, where I know what is important and lasting. If I write about today, I worry that it will date in ten years’ time. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Do you think Griet was typical of other girls her age? In what ways? How did she differ? Did you find her compassionate or selfish? Giving or judgmental? In many ways, the primary relationship in this novel appears to be between Griet and Vermeer. Do you think this is true? How do you feel about Vermeer’s relationship with his wife?

How does that come into play? Peering into 17th century Delft shows a small, self-sufficient city. Where do you think the many-pointed star at the city’s center pointed toward? What was happening elsewhere at that time? Discuss the ways religion affected Griet’s relationship with Vermeer. His wife? Maria Thins? Maria Thins obviously understood Vermeer’s art more than his wife did. Why do you think this was the case? Do you think she shared Griet’s talents? Do you think Griet made the right choice when she married the butcher’s son? Did she have other options? How is Delft different to or similar to your town or city? Are the social structures comparable? Though Girl with a Pearl Earring appears to be about one man and woman, there are several relationships at work. Which is the most difficult relationship? Which is the most promising?

Question: Who is the author of the novel 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'?
Answer: TRACY CHEVALIER