This is the
painting that inspired Tracy Chevalier to write “Girl with a Pearl Earring”
(1999) and which in turn led to the film (2003) starring Colin Firth and
Scarlett Johansson. It has been termed “The Dutch Mona Lisa” for its similarity
to Da Vinci’s famous painting of a woman who is apparently keeping a secret
from the world.
Johannes
Vermeer
Johannes (or
Jan) Vermeer (1632-75) only painted some 36 pictures that have survived to the
present day. He was little regarded in his own time, and indeed virtually
overlooked until the French art critic Théophile Thoré “discovered” him in the
1860s. He is now regarded as one of the great Dutch masters, not only for his
use of light and colour but also for the intimacy that he was able to portray.
Vermeer concentrated
on domestic interior scenes and the people, mainly women, who inhabited them.
They are captured at moments of seeming insignificance, much as someone might
do today with a snapshot camera, clicking away when the subjects least expect
it.
“Head of a
Girl”
This painting
(which dates from about 1665) is slightly different from Vermeer’s usual style in
that no domestic action is taking place. The painting is just what it says it
is, namely the head and shoulders of a young girl looking behind her over her
left shoulder, as if the artist had called her name as she was walking away
from him. Her lips are slightly parted, as though she is about to reply, and
her wide-open eyes look straight at the artist. This is very much a “snapshot”
of a portrait.
She is
dressed in a simple brown tunic with a white collar, but her hair is hidden by
a turban of bright blue and gold material, the loose end of which hangs down
behind her. The strong light from the left has caught her face and picked out
the white of the pearl earring visible just above her collar. The background is
complete darkness.
Who was she?
Tracy
Chevalier was interested in the mystery of who this girl was, and invented a
fiction that she was a serving girl called Griet who had attracted the artist’s
attention. There is clearly no proof of this, and a possibly more likely
suggestion is that she is one of Vermeer’s daughters, as he is known to have
had eleven children. The turban, in the Turkish style, may have been among the
“dressing-up” clothes that Vermeer’s family were known to have.
If the girl
is Vermeer’s daughter, this may have been the first time she had been asked to
pose for a portrait. Her expression is trusting, even loving, but with a hint
of anxiety, as though wondering how much longer this is going to take. After
all, if she is only 13 or 14, as seems likely, there is probably much else she
would rather be doing than sitting still!
The beauty of
this painting comes in part from its mastery of light and shade, and the contrast
of the colours in its limited palette, but also from its portrayal of innocence
coupled with a sense of mystery. We can guess all we like about what this young
woman might be thinking, but of course we will never know.
“Head of a
Girl” can be seen at the Mauritshuis art gallery in The Hague
© John
Welford
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