Girl with a Pearl Earring - portrait

Around 1665, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer created what would become his most beloved work. A young woman glances back over her shoulder, her lips parted just slightly, as though she has turned at the sound of your voice. She wears a blue and gold turban wrapped around her head, and hanging from her ear is the large pearl that gave the painting its name. Wherever you happen to stand, her gaze seems to follow you, holding your attention with a quiet directness. No room, no props, no story surrounds her, only that single moment of eye contact.

She is not actually a portrait of a real person. Vermeer painted her as a "tronie," a Dutch word for a study of a face or expression rather than a picture of someone in particular. His talent for capturing light shows everywhere here, from the gentle glow across her cheek to the bright spark on that famous pearl. Study the earring itself and you will find it is really just a couple of loose brushstrokes, yet somehow it seems round and heavy and full of shine.

The painting spent many quiet years mostly forgotten before it was rediscovered in the late 1800s. It now hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, where people affectionately call it the "Mona Lisa of the North." We still know almost nothing about who the girl was or why Vermeer chose to paint her, and that unanswered question is a big part of why visitors keep returning to meet her calm, mysterious stare.