Girl With a Pearl Earring (English)

Tracy Chevalier uses one of the greatest masterpieces in art history as the starting point for this ethereal novel, which conjures an unrequited love between Johannes Vermeer and Griet, his teenage maid. Millions have marveled at Vermeer's painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring," but no one knows the identity of the subject or why the style is so different from conventional portraits of the time. In Chevalier's rendering, each nuance of the work becomes further evidence of the unspoken passion between the genius painter, who remained unrecognized in his lifetime, and the girl who methodically cleaned his studio, under strict instruction to that everything must be placed back exactly as it was. As Griet becomes more and more involved in the life of her master, they form a unique kinship which takes them each beyond the dutiful love they feel towards their respective families. Chevalier supplements her riveting tale of impossible love by revealing the grueling processes hidden behind the pristine canvasses of 17th-century Dutch art. minimize