As demure and mysterious as the painting itself, this Girl with a Pearl Earring mug makes for a colorful and artsy addition to your day!
About Girl with a Pearl Earring Girl with a Pearl Earring is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, dated c. 1665. It is his most famous work of art.
Girl with a Pearl Earring is not a portrait, but a “tronie”: a painting of an imaginary figure. While many of Vermeer’s paintings depict women involved in daily tasks, such as chores, reading or writing, Girl with a Pearl Earring features an unidentified young woman doing nothing but looking over her shoulder to gaze directly at the viewer.
Johannes Vermeer established a brilliant set of techniques, utilizing light in revolutionary ways. He created masterpieces that will stand the test of time. His works, while not well known during his time, have remained in the popular consciousness since a revival in the 1850s.
Vermeer painted a lot of domestic interior scenes, as well as portraiture focused on a few subjects. His interests lay in compositional and technical aspects of art, including, most famously, his preoccupation with light and lighting. Girl with a Pearl Earring, his most famous pictures, epitomizes his interests and shows off his technical skill beautifully.
While little remains about the artist’s personal life, we can tell he was utterly devoted to his work and his art and spent a great deal of time in his home in Delft. His artwork only circulated amongst collectors during his life, but in time, his works would impact the world.
