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Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis
Housed in a splendid 17th-century palace in The Hague, the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis is home to some of the world's most beloved paintings--including Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring--and has become a destination for art enthusiasts from around the world. This engaging, accessible companion volume to a long-awaited exhibition guides readers through the highlights of the collection as if they were wandering the historic rooms themselves. A lavish plate section features 35 works, each accompanied by texts that explore its historical provenance and individual significance. Curatorial essays describe the building's founder, Count Johan Maurits, and his experience as a Dutch colonist in the New World; the formation of the collection; and also recent discoveries about the materials and techniques employed by these great artists. Fans of Vermeer's iconic masterpiece will delight in discovering that it is one of many beautiful artworks in the Mauritshuis's elegant rooms.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 17, 2013
17 people are currently reading
1321 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
June 26, 2023
I feel like the author got a lobotomy and to test if the procedure went according to plan, they asked them to write something down, and this garbage is what came out.
April 20, 2013
I'll admit that I always thought the title painting a tad over-rated, but upon seeing it in the flesh (in the canvas?) I was impressed. There's an immediacy to the expression that mechanical-reproduction, by definition, can't capture.
Comparatively less iconic artists, such as the moralist-allegoricist Jan Steen, the landscapsits Ruisdael and Berekheyde, and the still-life specialist Pieter Claesz broadened my palate for Dutch painting of the period.
My main-man de Hooch stole the show, though, with his great "Man Smoking and a Woman Drinking in a Courtyard" which made characteristically sublime use of depth and space. I think De Hooch the Wim Wenders of the seventeenth century! (I'm a film nerd at heart...)
Comparatively less iconic artists, such as the moralist-allegoricist Jan Steen, the landscapsits Ruisdael and Berekheyde, and the still-life specialist Pieter Claesz broadened my palate for Dutch painting of the period.
My main-man de Hooch stole the show, though, with his great "Man Smoking and a Woman Drinking in a Courtyard" which made characteristically sublime use of depth and space. I think De Hooch the Wim Wenders of the seventeenth century! (I'm a film nerd at heart...)
October 13, 2012
Written through the perspective of the a maid of an arist in the 18th ce. It is colourfully descriptive and whistfully takes the reader away to a simpler time. A light and delicately delightful read. It was made into a movie, one could find at the library which does bring the book justice.
June 8, 2020
I read this book years ago and enjoyed it, so gave it another whirl. It’s a quiet read and small things in the 1600s are often big things. But nonetheless still quite a page turner. I very much enjoy being transported to this world in a readable way.
February 25, 2022
I came here for Griet, I left for Pieter.
April 8, 2025
4.5 stars. This book felt elegant and kind of whimsical to read. The different time period and Intricate relationships were presented simply but enough that the reader is able to fill in any blanks or thoughts that the main character may have. I wish it was a little longer but I appreciate what a detailed world and story the author was able to create with so little. Definitely a book I’ll be thinking about for a while and wishing I could read it again for the first time.
August 19, 2024
He was a real painter!
September 29, 2022
Haunting portrait behind the portrait
What a pleasure! This book has been on my TBR pile for awhile (the movie version with Colin Firth is on my MoviesToWatch list too). The painting by the same name was created in 1665 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Author Tracy Chevalier names her protagonist, the girl in the painting, Griet. Her lovely face is haunting, elusive, young, pretty with flushed cheeks and barely-parted glossy lips—the perfect canvas for Chevalier to imagine the story of a girl-turning-into-a-woman, holding a crush for an older man, negotiating the female power-politics of her employer (wife, mother-in-law, a naughty 7-year-old and another servant). The contained world of this wealthy household in turn is contained in the small world of Griet’s village. Griet is trapped in both. Eventually she chooses to escape one but stays entrapped in the other. Wonderful characters and simple world-building in this novel. So glad I got it off my TBR.
What a pleasure! This book has been on my TBR pile for awhile (the movie version with Colin Firth is on my MoviesToWatch list too). The painting by the same name was created in 1665 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Author Tracy Chevalier names her protagonist, the girl in the painting, Griet. Her lovely face is haunting, elusive, young, pretty with flushed cheeks and barely-parted glossy lips—the perfect canvas for Chevalier to imagine the story of a girl-turning-into-a-woman, holding a crush for an older man, negotiating the female power-politics of her employer (wife, mother-in-law, a naughty 7-year-old and another servant). The contained world of this wealthy household in turn is contained in the small world of Griet’s village. Griet is trapped in both. Eventually she chooses to escape one but stays entrapped in the other. Wonderful characters and simple world-building in this novel. So glad I got it off my TBR.
June 24, 2018
Told from the point of view of a servant girl during the 1600’s hired by the Vermeer family. She works hard and has difficulties with one of his daughters. She has this thing about her master and secretly assists him by grinding stuff for paint. Vermeer appreciates her talent, but his wife feels threatened. I didn’t understand the secrecy of her grinding and why she had to be locked in the attic. Maybe she acted the way she did because she was a servant.
April 25, 2020
A friend gave me this book. It's not something I would normally pick up to read myself as I'm more of a non fiction reader. The book is elegantly written, however my advice to readers would be to try and get into the mindset of the social qualms of the 17th century. This was definitely not a book that I couldn't put down. Instead I felt like I kept waiting for something to happen, and after finishing the book in its entirety, nothing ever did.
October 7, 2020
This book popped up as one of my suggested readings, and I realized I hadn't added it to my library. This was one of my favorite books for a long time. I read this so long ago (2015?) - don't specifics, just that I loved the book, as much as I've always loved the painting. Seeing the cover makes me want to read it again!
June 18, 2017
One of my all time favourites!
October 30, 2018
This book is a great read. Greit was a strong level headed girl who was able to navigate the tricky and yes dangerous life she had to lead as maid
January 23, 2019
Exquisite!
May 19, 2021
One of my favorite books read in college
October 14, 2021
No words, absolutely stunning
December 21, 2021
Beautiful exploration
March 23, 2022
Really enjoyed this story!
July 13, 2022
Loved this book!
October 8, 2022
DNF - might try again some other time.
November 7, 2022
I like this book and also like to recommend to those people who loves to paint.
January 20, 2023
Perfect in every way 💕
May 29, 2023
wonderfully refreshing and enticing. a bit drab at parts yet all in all it was good enough to make me wish to not put it down.
December 30, 2023
4 1/2 stars. This was a book club selection and not a book that I would usually read so I was pleasantly surprised that I like it so much although initially I struggled to give the time to read it.
August 6, 2025
This was a rather sad story of how a young girl dealt with her life circumstances in the 1600's. She was resilient in the face of few choices.
November 6, 2025
3.5 stars!
June 17, 2022
Bastante moñas muy moñas pero es el primer libro que me he leído en inglés y a veces se hacía agotador entenderlo pero lo entendí oleeee
May 11, 2023
This story unfolded slowly and was a pleasant, relaxing read for me
January 11, 2024
This is not a book I would normally not have picked up. Thank you Bookclub. It is however historical fiction which is my favorite. The 1660’s and art are however not subjects I’m drawn to. It was an interesting read, dragged in the middle (just a bit) but had a solid finish. Overall, I really liked it.
July 22, 2013
What makes this book so disappointing is that it is such a far cry from actually seeing the paintings. Here in Atlanta in 2013 we've been blessed to be one of the very few cities where this wonderful couple dozen paintings from the Mauritshuis are being exhibited. This is a fabulous collection of art, more than half the paintings outstanding and several of them terrific. This book does not do them justice.
It's largely a question of scale and framing. The "Interior of an Imaginary Catholic Church" by Emanuel de Witte is cropped disastrously. This is a towering canvas (110 cm tall, 85 cm wide) with a cache of light for the close observer. In the book the top and bottom of the painting are gone. The composition and the mood are wrecked.
On the wall of the museum, Gerrit van Honthorst's "The Violin Player" stuns the eye with color. On the page, the word "vivid" comes to mind only by its absence.
Jan van Goyen's "View of the Rhine near Hochelten" is something of an epic, 81 cm tall and 152 cm wide and the foreground a teeming community of riverfront industry and commerce. In the book it's reduced to one swath of smudgy brown. If any painting needed closeups, this one did.
Go see the paintings while you have the chance! This book serves merely as a reference, thumbnails so you'll know the names of the paintings and the artists when you want to talk about them.
It's largely a question of scale and framing. The "Interior of an Imaginary Catholic Church" by Emanuel de Witte is cropped disastrously. This is a towering canvas (110 cm tall, 85 cm wide) with a cache of light for the close observer. In the book the top and bottom of the painting are gone. The composition and the mood are wrecked.
On the wall of the museum, Gerrit van Honthorst's "The Violin Player" stuns the eye with color. On the page, the word "vivid" comes to mind only by its absence.
Jan van Goyen's "View of the Rhine near Hochelten" is something of an epic, 81 cm tall and 152 cm wide and the foreground a teeming community of riverfront industry and commerce. In the book it's reduced to one swath of smudgy brown. If any painting needed closeups, this one did.
Go see the paintings while you have the chance! This book serves merely as a reference, thumbnails so you'll know the names of the paintings and the artists when you want to talk about them.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews