The Girl through the Ages
In honor of the 2023 Vermeer Exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, writer Isabella Ibañez shares a closer look at Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, and his most famous work - Girl with a Pearl Earring. Through this article, we discover that through technology, art history can become an archaeological endeavor. Through the Girl’s examination, we have now realized we can mine valuable physical data from the world's museums.
On January first, 1999, British-American novelist Tracy Chevalier catapulted an old artwork into the new millenia. Girl with a Pearl Earring, a fictional account of 17th-century Delft painter Johannes Vermeer and his mysterious muse, became a bestseller soon after its publication. Four years later, Chevalier’s novel was transformed into a film starring Hollywood actors Colin Firth and Scarlett Johannson. Gaining worldwide acclaim, the film received twenty-seven different nominations, including three Academy Awards.
Beyond its existence in contemporary culture, Girl with a Pearl Earring is originally the painting of a tronie, an idealized version of a face. Dated back to 1665-67, Vermeer depicts an imaginary young woman wearing a blue and gold turban, a large pearl earring, and a dark yellow jacket with a white collar beneath. She is engulfed by what seems to be a dark shallow space. With slightly parted lips, she turns over her shoulder to meet the viewer’s gaze. The Girl now resides at its permanent home in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Many have long sought to know what the girl's identity is or what Vermeer originally meant to communicate by painting her. Even though these are interesting questions, it is equally valuable to study the Girl as she is rather than what she could be. To honor her enigmatic aura, we must respect her anonymity, and instead try to discover what’s already there for us.
This is an art historical overview of Girl with a Pearl Earring and placement of her in the larger context in which she was painted. In this article, I describe a brief prehistory of the painting; explain her origins, oblivion, and rediscovery; and recount two of her crucial examinations and their most important findings. Finally, I offer some final reflections about the Girl. Through this, I hope to provide you with an excuse to go beyond this article and get to know the Girl more deeply.
Imitating the head curators at the Mauritshuis, I will colloquially refer to Girl with a Pearl Earring as the Girl, or “her” for matters of simplicity.
Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665-1667), Oil on canvas, 17 1⁄2 x 15 3⁄8 in. (44.5 x 30 cm). Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen, Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Before The Girl: A Brief Prehistory
How does the Girl fit in the historical context of the 17th century? To answer this question, we must first study the painting’s socio-economic and cultural background.
The Dutch Golden Age
In the mid-16th century, the Dutch revolted against the Spanish Habsburg crown. Led by William the Silent, the Dutch population established a democratic republic in the northern areas of the Netherlands. Soon enough, the small territory began to compete with the great powers of Europe for leadership. Spearheaded by the foundation of the Dutch East and West India companies, trade grew quickly. Soon enough, commercial success transformed the economic landscape, giving rise to a thriving merchant class that could afford to innovate and invest in the spheres of science and art. These events gave rise to the Dutch Golden Age (1609-1713), a century defined by the unique economic, political, and cultural influence the Dutch held on the rest of Europe.
During this era, curiosity about the natural world inspired scientists and artists alike. In the small city of Delft, scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to explore the life of small creatures through microscopy. Baptized four days before him, painter Johannes Vermeer explored the laws of light and perspective to render life with mathematical precision.
Moving away from tradition, the art market met a new type of customer. To decorate their homes with artworks that truly represented them, newly prosperous and sometimes foreign merchants sought depictions of middle-class subjects and familiar objects. The emergence of tronies serves as an interesting case study for this occurrence.
The Tronies of Rembrandt and Lievens
A decade before Vermeer was born in Delft, two painters from nearby Leiden were particularly interested in creating alluring artworks for the open market. Far different from commissioned portraits of the aristocracy, the famous Jan Lievens and the legendary Rembrandt van Rijn trained their craft by rendering nameless characters - head studies otherwise known as tronies.
On the left: Rembrandt van Rijn, Man in Oriental Costume (1635), Oil on panel, 72 by 54.5 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. On the right: Jan Lievens, Study of the Head and Shoulders of an Old Bearded Man, Wearing a Cap (1629), Oil on oak panel, 60.1 by 47.8 cm. Private Collection.
Tronies were head or half-length figures of family members, friends, and working-class people. Their purpose was to display the artists’ skill at truthfully depicting expressions, materials, and other cultural objects. Ambiguous in meaning but deeply charged with emotion, tronies served as a stepping stone for artists who wished to build an important reputation. Lievens and Rembrandt, who strongly desired to reach the highest rank in artistic hierarchy, would use tronies as a way of nurturing their ambition with training and expertise. Some examples include Rembrandts’ Man in Oriental Costume and Lievens’ Study of the Head and Shoulders of an Old Bearded Man, Wearing a Cap, see above).
Following this current just a generation later, Vermeer would create Girl with a Pearl Earring, the world’s most famous tronie.
The Girl Then: From Vermeer’s Easel to the Mauritshuis
The Girl is not isolated from the rest of Vermeer’s oeuvre. The Girl was created at a time when Vermeer applied his paint less thickly, used light effects more sparingly as well as softer contours. Still following strict perspectival rules, Vermeer began to focus his attention on single female figures enclosed by an interior space. We can visibly notice this in works like Study of a Young Woman and Girl with a Red Hat, which were also tronies created almost simultaneously to the Girl (see below). In each image, a girl with an engaging look gives the viewer a subtle glimpse of her distinct character, all the while keeping her inner world hidden from us. The Girl, however, stands apart from the rest - she seems more direct. A combination of richly-contrasted primary colors and her sculptural face give Girl with a Pearl Earring an appealing advantage over the other tronies.
On the left: Johannes Vermeer, Study of a Young Woman (1665-67), Oil on canvas, 44.5 by 40 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. On the right: Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Red Hat (1666-67), Oil on panel, 40.3 by 35.6 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The Girl’s Birth and Oblivion
Vermeer modeled the Girl with an interplay of textures. Her face is soft and delicate, her turban freely expressive. This is explained by the different techniques he applied: for the Girl’s skin, Vermeer created a sfumato effect by softly blending the light and dark tones, creating an idealized image. For the blue turban, he used a wet-and-wet technique with paint mixed directly on the canvas, giving it that expressive feel. Other objects are also distinctive: the pearl is unreasonably large, leading scholars to believe the earring was a glass-blown fake pearl made in Venice. The coarsely-painted yellow jacket is not easily identified, although it appears to have been a fashionable item of clothing at the time. The background is not black as seen at first glance, but a translucent green over a dark undertone.
Some examples that reveal these clear similarities include Sweerts’ Portrait of a Girl, and Boy in a Turban Holding a Nosegay (see below). Some notable elements strongly resemble Vermeer's Girl: the white-collar motif, the interplay of gold and blue, and the innocent aura of the figures could have been points of reference. The Girl, however, once again stands apart from the rest - her penetrating gaze is impossible to escape from.
On the left: Michael Sweerts, Portrait of a Girl (1638-1664), Oil on canvas, 43.5 by 36.5 cm. Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester. On the right: Michael Sweerts, Boy in a Turban Holding a Nosegay (1658-1661), Oil on canvas, 76.4 by 61.8,. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
With this in mind, we are brought to question - how could such an enigmatic piece be so easily forgotten, only to be rediscovered two centuries later?
There are a few reasons which explain this. Vermeer only produced 36 works, and most of them were owned by a single patron, Pieter van Ruijven. A vulnerable army of paintings was left to defend his legacy against a growing population of talented artists. Years after his death, the Dissius sale led to the dispersion of Vermeer’s works. Many of them fell into unknown hands. By the 18th century, Vermeer had sunk into oblivion.
It took a smart buyer and his friend, an alert art historian, to rescue the Girl as she turned 216 years old.
The Girl’s Rediscovery
In 1881, the Girl reappeared at the Braams auction in the Hague. Victor de Stuers (the alert art historian) recognized the painting’s quality despite its bad condition and nudged his friend Arnoldus Andries des Tombe (the smart buyer) to purchase it. As to not arouse suspicion both agreed not to bid against each other and ultimately acquired the painting for the unbelievably profitable bargain of 2.30 guilders. The Girl stayed in des Tombe’s possession until his death in 1902, when it was revealed that he had donated her to the Mauritshuis. This makes sense, as one of Des Tombe’s late advisers, the future director of the Mauritshuis was the first one to publicly praise the painting.
The Girl’s Initial Restorations
The Girl underwent some changes after it was purchased by des Tombe. During the 1880s, the painting was intervened by Antwerp painter Van der Haedghen to remedy its badly neglected state. 80 years later, the Girl was varnished by J.C. Traas, the first restorer to be officially employed by the Mauritshuis. He applied a tinted varnish, which yellowed over the years. In 1994, this varnish was eventually removed during the Vermeer Illuminated large-scale examination.
The 1994 examination of the Girl was a milestone. Following the usual pattern of restoration, experts at the Mauritshuis removed the yellowed varnish and applied a new one with a more stable composition. Some things about the restoration were exceptional: the studio was visible to the public, allowing visitors to witness the project in real time. With the sole aim of restoring the painting itself, the Vermeer Illuminated project succeeded at identifying some key elements: a small flake of white lead paint had drifted through the canvas, creating the deceptive effect of a third highlight in the pearl. Further, technical examinations involving the removal of microscopic samples revealed a lighter, greenish background than originally understood.
Although a strong start, these findings inspired more questions than definitive answers about the Girl. Characteristic of her spirit, she continued to inspire mystery. It wasn’t until the 21st century that technology was able to catch up to her.
The Girl Now: In Light of New Evidence
What do we know about the Girl now, and how has our perception of her changed? In 2018, an international team of experts embarked on the ambitious task of finding more about the Girl through state-of-the-art, non-invasive technology. Once again encased in glass, The Girl was placed in the spotlight to confess more exciting truths.
Vermeer’s Painting Process and Illusive Skill
To assess the surface of the painting and Vermeer’s process of composition, the examiners at The Girl in the Spotlight Project in 2018 rendered a computerized version of the painting’s 3-dimensional structure. This involved two approaches: a second chemical analysis of the samples collected in 1994, and a scientific examination of the entire painting using non-invasive imaging techniques. In other words, the techniques they used to study the painting closely did not touch its surface.
For the underlayers, infrared imaging was used to reveal how Vermeer composed the Girl by sketching her highlights and shadows with black and brown paint. The evidence is clear, for example, through a close-up look at the girl’s jacket, which shows thin black lines revealing the contouring process. Infrared scans also revealed some changes to the painting’s composition: Vermeer shifted the Girl’s headscarf upward along with the bottom of her ear.
As Vandivere and colleagues also discovered, Vermeer approached the colored upper layers systematically. Starting with the background (1), Vermeer moved on to her face (2), painted her yellow jacket (3), white collar (4), headscarf (5), and ultimately added the final details and the pearl (6). His signature went last (7).39 See Figure 5 for a visualization of Vermeer’s process.
Two interesting elements stand out from the surface’s analysis. Firstly, the pearl’s elusive nature comes to life through the microscope. It has no contour, there is no hook to hold it, and it only exists due to 2 thin, white lead paint brushstrokes varying in thickness. Vermeer’s pearl is an illusion, literally and figuratively. Upon a closer look, Vermeer reminds us the larger-than-life pearl resembles a Venetian glass-blown orb. Secondly, the analysis of the girl’s skin revealed the remains of 2 of Vermeer’s dry brush hairs on her cheek, again confirming he used the sfumato effect to blend light and shadow.
Annotated image of Vermeer’s painting process. The enlarged image of the pearl and turban (upper and lower right) are a stitched 3D digital microphotograph (×140, 1.1 μm/pixel), as depicted in Vandivere et al., p. 4. The signature (upper left) is a traced image from macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) elemental maps, as depicted in Vandivere et al., 2020., p. 4. The skin (lower left) is a 3D digital micrograph of the Girl’s cheek showing small hairs embedded in the paint, indicated with red arrows, as depicted in van Loon et al., 2019, p. 5
The Color Palette: A Valuable Source of Historical Evidence
Perhaps one of the most incredible findings from the Girl’s scientific examination has to do with the geographical tracing of the materials she was made of and what that means for the study of the larger historical context in which Vermeer painted her.
The project’s researchers were able to map the pigments’ chemical compositions to determine where they originally came from. As they found, the organic red pigment visible in the Girl’s lips is “Mexican cochineal,” an insect that still inhabits cacti populations in South America. Vermeer used high-quality ultramarine for the Girl’s turban, a rare and highly expensive pigment that was mined from semi-precious stone lapis lazuli in the territory we now call Afghanistan. As we now know, Vermeer was able to produce a more intense blue because the stone was heated at a high temperature before crushing it. One inconclusive piece of evidence remained: the indigo pigment, also used for the turban, may have come from either the East Indies, imported by the Dutch East India Company, or from Guatemala, imported by the Dutch West India Company. The ultramarine may have been shipped from the port of Chinsurah and the cochineal from the coasts of Suriname. This, however, is only a matter of personal speculation.
The scientific findings of Vermeer’s color palette on the Girl are astounding. Almost as if Vermeer had done it deliberately, the Afghan ultramarine in the Girl’s turban directly speaks to its context - once the traditional attire of the powerful Ottoman Empire, the turban both physically and metaphorically honors its cultural reach. The origins of the other pigments also confirm what is known about the Dutch Golden Age. now complemented by scientific examination, art history becomes almost an archaeological endeavor - through technology, we can now mine valuable physical data from the world's museums.
In this sense, the Girl now reveals a new part of herself. Previously misconceived as silent and reserved, she shares intimate details with us through clarity and openness. Who knew it came down to asking her the right questions? It appears we have hit the jackpot.
Annotated diagram of Vermeer’s color palette and the pigments’ geographical origin, as revealed by Vandivere et al., 2020, pp. 3-8.
The Girl Next: What Does the Future Hold?
What has the Girl achieved so far? What questions still remain about her?
Far more than a painting of an anonymous and imaginary figure, the Girl can now be understood as a physical structure with depth and substance. The Girl contains fragments of history within her. On the surface, the Girl is quiet and mysterious, inviting the viewer in. As we peel through her layers, the Girl opens up to us. In a very graceful manner, she discloses some details about her context, but her inner world remains entirely her own.
We may never know anything about the Girl’s identity, but some questions, I believe, are meant to stay unanswered. There is true value in her mysterious anonymity.
As Abbie Vandivere, paintings conservator at the Mauristhuis, comments - the Girl has created “a benchmark for future research on other paintings.” Having found out so much about a single artwork makes us question what lies beneath every other, and what each can reveal about the time they were created in. The Girl, however, holds a certain privilege - the range of technologies available to her requires the highest amount of investment.
At the end of an interview for the Analytical Scientist, Vandivere confesses the work on the Girl has not finished. Future collaborations between scientists, academics, and programmers will further explore how the Girl originally looked like in 1665, or how she can be recreated through 3D printing technology. Exciting times lie ahead.
Conclusion
Now than ever before, I hold the Girl with a Pearl Earring close to heart.
I would like to conclude with a final reflection on where the Girl sits now. The Girl’s permanent home was once the property of Johan Maurits, the Prince of Nassau-Siegen. Grand-nephew to William the Silent, he built on his legacy through exploration. Having spent years in the far-away land of Brazil, he would frequently repeat the motto of the Dutch Marine Corps: “qua patet orbis. As far as the world extends.” In my view - his spirit lives on through the Girl, who has traveled far beyond the small world of Vermeer’s Delft.
The Girl now rests in the fifteenth room of the Mauritshuis, hung on a green wall. Her slightly parted lips are still frozen in time. Trapped by her gaze, the viewer still waits for her to speak.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Isabella Ibañez is one of the co-founders of Project Synergy. Currently, she’s also a Digital Project Manager at ATTOMO Digital, a Spanish-based marketing consultancy. She graduated with a BSc in Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam.
