Interview with Tracy Chevalier — author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

— What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer’s painting?

  — I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous — sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I thought there must be a story behind her look, but we don’t know who the model for the painting was, so I realized I would have to make up the story myself.

— Why did you make the girl a servant? Did Griet really exist?

  — In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women’s Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. However, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. So I thought, who would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant. Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works.

— Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?

  — I think people like Vermeer because he reflects our everyday lives, yet makes them more beautiful and more ideal. He paints a whole world in a little corner of a room. The paintings are beautiful and simple and yet complicated too, with lingering depths and understated meanings. They are very calm paintings, and you’re forced to slow down when you look at them. In this noisy, frenetic world, that tranquility can be quite seductive.

Internet: <www.tchevalier.com> (adapted).

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