Girl with a Pearl Earring

The story of Girl with a Pearl Earring

A girl turns to look over her shoulder as if you have just said her name. Her lips are parted, her eyes are wet with light, and a single pearl hangs from her ear against the shadow of her neck. Vermeer painted her around 1665 in Delft, and nobody knows who she was, or whether she was anyone at all; it is a study of a face and a costume rather than a portrait of a person. It hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The background is not black but a dark green glaze that has darkened over time, and the pearl is two strokes of white.

On a wall, this is a dark painting with three points of light: the face, the collar, and the pearl. The dominant colors are the near-black ground, the ultramarine and ochre of the turban, warm skin, and a white collar, so it looks best against a wall that lets the face come forward. It suits a bedroom, a living room, a study, a dressing room, or a hallway, and it fits classic, Dutch, minimalist, and dark-walled interiors. The original is small, about 18 × 15 in, so the Medium at 16 × 18.9 in is the true-to-life choice and the one we recommend. If you want her at a distance, the Large at 24 × 28.4 in and the Extra Large at 36 × 42.6 in are both offered.

Vermeer's The Milkmaid is the other face everyone knows from him, in daylight. Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Lady with an Ermine are the two other portraits people hang beside this one. More from Johannes Vermeer.

Printed in our studio from a public-domain photograph of the Mauritshuis panel, with the dark ground left as it is now rather than restored to green.