Girl with a Pear Earring

-Johannes Vermeer

I took inspiration for my book from the oil painting by Dutch Golden age Painter, Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring , which is dated at 1665.

It went by various names over the centuries but towards the end of the 20th century it became known by it's title today because of the large pearl earring worn by the girl portrayed.

Girl With a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, who's a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. She has a calm and perceptive manner which not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention.

As you can see, the paintings background and my story are not very similar at all but one important similarity that is shown that in both stories she has so much attention on her from the painter finding her interesting to her being the most significant painting in the whole museum. The only difference is that in those stories the attention is a positive and the other is most definitely not that leads to detrimental results.

I chose this painting, not only because of its background and how I perceive it to fit into my story, I find the painting very beautiful and a lot of people say it can seem quite enchanting to look at as the viewer believes they have caught the the girl's attention. It is very sensual as the girl is gazing at the viewer with wide eyes and mouth slightly open so there is mystery about her identity.


I chose grey as my main colour for the book as it takes place in a museum so the only appropriate colour in that situation would be grey.
As well as that, in the painting she's a maid and never got to wear the nicest clothes so most of her clothes were probably quite dull and grey so it's appropriate there

To live up to the theme of grey I will colour the inside pages grey. The book will definitely have an element of grey but to match with the original painting I will use blues, blacks and yellows as well. The colours won't be that strong or vibrant but this will fit the theme of the old, dusty museum.

Overall this painting inspired my book immensely and it created my whole story that was quite interesting to write.