Girl with a Pearl Earring
Tracy Chevalier
A novel built around Vermeer's picture of same. The made-up story is
about the pictured girl going to work in Vermeer's unhappy household. The
girl's father was a Delft tile painter, and the girl herself is really an
artist - in her spare time she helps Vermeer in his studio, making up
paints and so forth; she doesn't watch him painting, but she sees the
pictures taking shape. (To read this book you need another book, of
Vermeer's paintings, to hand).
A fairly light book, but very nicely done with a strong sense of place
and very detailed.
Doreen 27/8/00
This is a book imagining how a Vermeer painting came to be
painted. Jean had mixed feelings about it - she liked it because
it is obviously well researched and it immerses you in the world
of Vermeer. You learn how households of the time lived and how
paintings were done. The story is that the painting is of a maid
who went to live in Vermeer's household. Jean was unhappy that it
was a mixture of fact and fiction and thought the character of
the maid was too clever for a 15-year -old.
Doreen commented that Vermeer is known to have been hard-up
(he had 11 children to support) and that not much else is known
about him. Both commented on the dressing-up box that Vermeer's
subjects used and how items from it appear in different
paintings. Recommended with reservations
Jean 23/2/03
By the same author
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.