#3 – Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer
In Girl with a Pearl Earring, one of Vermeer’s most engaging images, a young girl dressed in an exotic turban turns and gazes at the viewer. Her liquid eyes and half-opened mouth impart the immediacy of her presence, yet her purity and her evocative costume give her a lasting quality, unconstrained by time or place.
The relatively large scale of this figure reveals how Vermeer enhanced the sense of realism through his expressive painting techniques. For example, he enlivened the young girl’s half-smile with two small white dots on either side of her mouth, echoing the highlights in her eyes. He also ingeniously used his paints to capture the effect of light falling across her features, turban, and ocher-colored jacket. He evoked the delicacy of her skin with a soft contour for her cheek, which he created by extending a thin glaze slightly over the edge of the thick impasto defining the flesh color. He indicated reflected light from the white color in the pearl earring, but also, and more subtly, in the shadows on her left cheek. Finally, he painted the shaded portion of the blue turban by covering a black under-part with freely applied glazes of natural ultramarine.
- This painting is an art reproduction of the original 19 Century painting. It is perfect for home decoration or gift-giving. Please send your inquiry to us if interested. Each painting reproduction will be done by an experienced and talented artist, totally hand painted with eco-friendly oil paints on canvas.All oil painting reproductions can be customized with various options of sizes and frames. Art recreation is also offered for oil paintings if you would like to change technique, style, or colors. Let us help you bring this masterpiece to your life!