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Girl with a Pearl Earring

Name: Provenio Provenance Knowledge Graph
License: https://provenio.art/terms

Oil on canvas by Johannes Vermeer, c.1665. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Tronie (character study/head) depicting an unidentified young woman with a large pearl earring and an exotic blue-yellow turban, turning to look at the viewer. Called the 'Dutch Mona Lisa'.

Notes

·A tronie (type figure or head study) rather than a portrait of a named individual. The girl cannot be identified; Vermeer's daughter Maria has been proposed but not confirmed.
·The earring is notably large and glossy; technical examination suggests it may be glass rather than pearl, or an idealized representation.
·The blue and yellow turban is an 'exotic' orientalizing element fashionable in 17th-century Dutch genre and tronie painting.
·The work was relatively unknown until Thoré-Bürger's 1866 publication, and was not connected to Vermeer with certainty until the 20th century.
·Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' popularised the work globally; the 2003 film adaptation further increased its cultural reach.
·2018 technical analysis revealed previously invisible details including eyebrows and a green glazed background layer that has degraded to near-black.