BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Girl with a Pearl Earring

By Marilyn Bow

Tracy Chevalier, enamored with Vermeer and his awe-inspiring portrait Girl with a Pearl Earring, brought forth her knowledge and research in this factual book with a fictional love interest. 

Set in 1664, Delft, South Holland. The story is told through the eyes of a sixteen year old Girl name Griet, whose family fell on hard times after her father, a tile painter, was in a disastrous kiln accident. Greit was forced to go to work as a maid at the nearby Vermeer residence. With dry and bleeding hands from standing over the steaming laundry, a worn down spirit from constant antagonizing of the family, and the insistence from her mother to marry a local butcher’s son, Greit finds her only solitude in her master’s studio. Greit’s duties as a maid, and passion for art, begin to expand when he grants her an opportunity he has denied even to his wife: to help him with his painting. Vermeer and the young servant form a quiet bond while working side by side, grinding materials for paintings and discussing the colors and the illusion of light. Vermeer comes to respect, and in his own way, love his obedient maid. 

Vermeer’s friend, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Warns Griet that "The women in his paintings; he traps them in his world. You can get lost there." It wasn’t until Vermeer insisted he paint the young girl with Catherina’s, his jealous wife’s, pearl earrings that Griet and her family’s livelihood is threatened; and Leeuwenhoek’s advice held true. She protested against wearing the earring knowing it would be the end of her time at the Vermeer household. Although, the persistent Vermeer was concerned only with his art.

This is a surprising and ironic coming of age tale that is told through a web of love, power, social status, and art of the 17th century as you silently watch how the historical and celebrated Girl with a Pearl Earring came to be, and how she avoided becoming just another lost figure in Vermeer’s studio. 

Chevalier’s presentation of intricate details and her knowledge of Delft, Vermeer’s life, and his original painting techniques, all come together to make the novel its own piece of art. She has succeeded in merging together both fact and fiction to create a story about what was held behind the eyes of The girl with a Pearl Earring.