03 May 2012

After Vermeer

Mitchell Grafton, Self-Portrait

Painted by the 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the most recognized masterpieces. The focal point of the painting is the earring. Many of the women Vermeer painted are associated with pearls. A strength of the painting is its use of light, illuminating the girls face and highlighting the earring. Critics suggest that an earring of this type was unlikely to exist at this time, and it has been speculated that Vermeer painted the earring from imagination. Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, using bright colors and sometimes expensive pigments, with a preference for cornflower blue and yellow. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light.

 Johannes Vermeer, painting (circa 1667)

 Adam Lister, fine art inkjet pigment

 Hans Westbeek, digital painting

 HidenSeek, painting

 John Paul Pietrus, photo

 Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle, airigami: balloon art

 Mariel Clayton, Barbie art

 aebum joo, pixelated art

 Robert Silvers, photomosaic on aluminum

 pageboy, painting: Robot Dinosaur Vermeer

 Zucchi, photo collage

 Andrea Matarazzo, digital painting

 domadoll, doll art

 KristenCumings, jelly bean art!

 millersye, painting (the bunny girl with ears but no earring)

 John Diehl, painting

 Meowza Katz, à la Simpsons 

  Tulio Fagim, collage

 yumyumshisha, digital painting


Tracy Chevalier wrote a historical novel, also entitled Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), fictionalizing the circumstances of the painting's creation. In the novel, Johannes Vermeer becomes close with a fictional servant named Griet, whom he hires as an assistant and has sit for him as a painting model while wearing one of his wife's pearl earrings.The novel inspired a 2003 film by Peter Webber, staring Scarlett Johansson as the girl with the pearl earring. The film uses a bright color scheme as in Vermeer's paintings.


 Forlorn Existence, painting (portrait of Scarlett Johansson)

vianaarts, ballpoint pen (portrait of Scarlett Johansson)


 street art

 street art

street art

 dirty car art


Vermeer’s light 
on a chicken’s head 
puts the lie to form
allows his love 
for content 
or not.

George Bowering, in Vermeer’s Light: Poems 1996-2006 


Dorothee Golz, photo collage