I have just finished Tracy Chevalier's book Girl with a Pearl Earring, inspired by the mysterious muse of Johannes Vermeer's painting of the same name.
Before I read Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland and Girl with a Pearl Earring, I knew nothing about the Dutch painter Vermeer. I can't claim I know any more of him now, except that I like his painting technique. Enjoyment of these books has led me to seek out images of his paintings on the Internet. I will direct you to this site, as I think it has very good scans. The colors are vibrant. The scans at Web Museum are so dark — it's hard to see some of the detail. Of all of the paintings I saw, however, this one, Girl with a Pearl Earring, is my favorite. I like the way the light hits the girl's face — the way her eyes shine, the moist sheen on her lips, the way the pearl glistens. It's been compared to Mona Lisa.
The book? Well, I think technically it was better than Chevalier's The Virgin Blue, which I reviewed here, but it didn't speak to me in the same way that The Virgin Blue did. Don't get me wrong — I loved the book. I think it is part of a fascinating genre of literature that seems to be really hitting its stride right now — art-inspired literature, something I previously wrote about here. I think the only thing that really troubled me about the book is the same thing that art historians have complained about — the negative portrayal of Vermeer and his wife Catharina. Susan Vreeland portrayed them, especially Catharina, very differently in Girl in Hyacinth Blue. For one thing, Vreeland emphasized their poverty. When Vermeer died, the family was deeply in debt. One story that seems veriafiably accurate is that his family's debt with their baker was settled because the baker was willing to take Vermeer's artwork in trade. I wondered how they could afford a maid, let alone two maids, as they had in the book. However, Chevalier pointed out that a maid, Tanneke, was mentioned in Vermeer's will. I have to be fair and say that Chevalier never described the Vermeers as wealthy, and she emphasized that they fell into debt after the departure of Griet, the novel's protagonist. I guess I just feel, in my modern mindset, that a maid is a luxury only wealthy people can afford. I don't know a thing about it, so I can't say exactly when Vermeer became poor, or whether he was always poor. He was portrayed as someone who used people for what they could bring to his artwork. There is this sense that he and Catharina do not get along, when they had 15 children together (11 of whom survived). You have to like each other a bit more than the novel portrays to have so many children, I'd think.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
fascinating Dana, thanks!
2 - Mat
this book is a classic, set in the mid 1600's. about a girl (griet) sent to work at a painter's house (vermeer) to earn the family some money after her father lost his eyes to an accident at work, painting tiles. Griet has to overcome many obsticles, many of which relate to her like for Vermeer, but she knows that he is out of reach and meets Pieter and expresses he feelings for Vermeer through Peiter, (Pieter likes griet and the eventually marry). other obsticles are the "tight" or mean mistriss (Cartharina) and the other maid (tanneke), Tanneke is jelous that Griet goes straight up to the attic, where Vermeers paintings are, to clean when Tanneke has been there about 10 years and is still not alowed to enter the attic.
3 - Coco
No literary style what so ever in Chevalier’s books. They are interesting because describing a period of time with which not many are familiar (and you could bet a fortune at no risks that people familiar with the Europe’s 1660 would took pity on us enjoying those fictions that much). I mean you could read Life in Holand in Rembrand’s times and write yourself those books just the same. I just finished the book and enjoyed it but found that writing under the cover of an illiterate girl Chevalier considered she can spare herself the effort of a literary style. Think at Faulkner’s people, right? Very simple, poorest whites and blacks of the South right but then the narration….It only influenced all the writers ever since. Or think at Gabriel Garcia’s 100 of Solitude people right ? Illiterates for most part, but then the narration… We’re talking Nobel prizes here, I know.
I also found Chavalier took strange pleasure in describing sordid facts. We could just have get the idea the Van Reujen was a sordid creature without so much attention on him (he ended up impressing me more than the painter who’s portrait I found very vague, his kids being much stronger characters then him). And she was sort of sadistic in Virgin Blue too. I have no time to develop..
Where I totally agree with you is that Girl with a Pearl Earring didn't speak to me in the same way that The Virgin Blue did.
But I enjoyed the book. Really.
4 - dezirae
is the movie girl wit peral earring just like the movie