Vermeer, Johannes, Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665. 44.5 cm × 39 cm (17.5 in × 15 in), oil on canvas. Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands.
Veering from the majority of Vermeer’s works that depicted intimate scenes of daily Dutch life, this painting from the Dutch master brings us eye to eye with the subject. Often called the Mona Lisa of the North, it technically is not a portrait at all. It is a tronie, a painting style of the time in the Netherlands that showed a character or specific type of person with an exaggerated expression. The dark background and soft lighting helps to further the mysteriousness of the unnamed girl. Notice the softness of her facial features, and how the edges of her lips and her eyes do not come to a specific point; they are somewhat blurred. Does she smile at us? Or perhaps the opposite? It is up to us; Vermeer encourages the viewer to project their emotions onto the figure.
Under the surface, there is a deeper connection in this painting between wealth, colonialism, and an unidentified woman. The white girl wears a pearl, indicating wealth, and a turban that signifies the success of Dutch colonialist trade routes. Vermeer combines a lust for material affluence with longing for ‘the Orient’, all embodied in a tronie that evokes a desire for a mysterious, unidentified female body. It is a beautiful painting, but its evoked fantasy objectifies an idea of a woman who remains unnamed.
Work cited:
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/explore/the-collection/artworks/girl-with-a-pearl-earring-670/