painting - Girl with a Pearl Earring
Photograph by Noah Scalinon Flickr.
In any case, it is probably not meant as a conventional portrait. More recent Vermeer literature points to painting Ophelia painting the image being a tronie , the Dutch 17th-century description of a ’head’ that was not meant to be a portrait. At the time, its condition was very bad.
Des Tombe had no heirs and donated this and other paintings to the Mauritshuis in 1902. In 1937, a very similar painting, Smiling Girl, at the time also thought to be by Vermeer, was donated by collector Andrew W. The painting is in The Mauritshuis in The Hague.
It is now widely considered to be a fake. des Tombe purchased the work at an auction in The Hague in 1881 for only two guilders and thirty cents.
It is unclear whether this work was commissioned, and if so, by whom. Mellon to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
This painting is signed IVMeer but not dated. After the most recent restoration of the painting in 1994 the subtle colour scheme and the intimacy of the girl’s gaze on to the spectator has been greatly enhanced. On the advice of Victor de Stuers, who for years tried to prevent Vermeer s rare works from being sold to parties abroad, A.A.
It is sometimes referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North or the Dutch Mona Lisa . In general, very little is known about Vermeer and his works.
