Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665
Johannes Vermeer
Oil on canvas · 44.5 x 39 cm
A tronie of a turned head and a single glinting pearl, endlessly re-stared-at.
Often called the 'Mona Lisa of the North,' Vermeer's girl turns to meet our eye, lips parted, a single pearl catching the light. She is not a portrait but a 'tronie' — a study of a face and an exotic turban. Quiet, luminous, unforgettable.
What you're looking at
The pearl is not painted as an object at all. It is two strokes of white — one for the highlight, one for the reflection thrown up from her collar — floating over a grey ground, with no outline and no hook holding it to her ear. The background is black now but was not: the Mauritshuis's 2018 examination found a green glazed curtain behind her, its folds since degraded to a flat dark field. The turban's blue is ultramarine, ground from lapis lazuli, the most expensive pigment available to him.
On a Frame TV
Portrait, about 5:6, so the matted file is the one to use. That lost curtain is an advantage here — a near-black ground on an emissive panel reads convincingly as a picture hanging in a dark room, which is the one lighting condition where a Frame is most convincing. Poor on a wall that catches afternoon sun.
Mauritshuis · Visit it in The Hague →
- 4K master file (3840px+)
- Samsung Frame TV–ready crop
- Phone wallpaper crop
- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
Why Girl with a Pearl Earring is not a portrait, and the pearl is not a pearl →
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with Johannes Vermeer.
