Girl With a Pearl Earring

Oh my goodness...what a refreshing reading experience I had this weekend!  After many weeks of reading young adult literature, I was able to pick up an adult novel I'd been wanting to read for some time now...Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.  I literally absorbed it!  I read this deluxe edition and enjoyed the paintings included...I'm such a visual learner!  Anyhow, not only had I been entranced by Johannes Vermeer's painting for some time now, but I had fallen in love with the movie a few years ago.  And if I purchase a movie, then I absolutely love it!  

Usually, I don't enjoy reading books that have already been "ruined" by the movie version.  Although I knew the story, I had to experience the novel for myself.  And it was a fantastic experience!  And once I learned more about the history of Holland during the late 1600s, and the inaccuracies and mysteries of this painting, I became even more amazed at the beauty and intrigue.  I understand the author's undying need to figure out who this girl may have been.  She is nothing like his other subjects.  There HAS to be a personal connection between this young girl, who only appears in one painting in unique clothing.  She isn't in the "corner" as so many of Vermeer's subjects are.  She isn't wearing anything of his wife's or anything like any other subject.  In fact, my research has indicated her turban must be something she threw together because there aren't any other turbans like it found in any of that period's art.  Plus, look at the background.  Nothing.  Vermeer's other paintings are busy.  I think he was infatuated with this maid.  I believe they had some personal relationship and I love how the author created the subject's world around this painting.  


Just in case you've never seen the movie or read the book, this novel takes the Girl With a Pearl Earring painting by Vermeer and spins a wonderfully realistic tale of the girl's life and how she came to be his subject.   Griet, the maid, is sent to work at Vermeer's home.  She is hired to clean his studio, a room no one is allowed to enter.  As she works, she forms an attachment to Vermeer and the tension between them is electric!  Catharina, his wife, is pregnant continuously throughout the book.  They eventually have eleven children!  So, the wife is full of hormones and paranoia.  Between her and her daughter, Cornelia, they give Griet a really hard way to go.  After many trials and much tribulation,  Griet is asked to sit for a painting and thus we have the cover image.  

Scarlett Johnsson plays Griet in the movie.  Great casting choice!

Seriously, I truly believe this painting is one of the most intriguing I've ever seen.  I would love to see it in person.  It's currently housed at The Hague and is supposed to be on loan in Tokyo next year.  Wow...wouldn't that be a trip!  

Well, here's one for the bucket list!  Until then,


Happy Reading!
RC