Famous painting - Vermeer

Description

Het meisje met de parel - Vermeer (Netherlands 1665)

Actually an unusual Baroque motif - so simple - but by Vermeer (one of the first 'photorealist') it shows a special quality.

Leonardo had his Mona Lisa - now I have a 'nice Meisje' :)

About the original

This is the most popular painting of Vermeer, but it took until 1995 to get known by a Vermeer exhibition.

The design is an exception in Vermeer's work because it comes with 'simple modesty'.

It is neither known who the young girl was nor if it was a contract job.

The image background is not black but consists of very dark colors (with my HB pencil I can not reproduce these differences).

Due to the posture, the open mouth and the line of sight to the observer, the impression of an impassive contact is established.

The turban is interesting – it shows the former affection for oriental culture.

About the subject a novel and a film was created as a pure fantasy story (Title: Girl with a Pearl Earring).

About the artist

Born 1632
Died 1675

He has created only 40 paintings (but he had 15 children).

During his lifetime he had only local success and got fast forgotten after his death.

He died in debt.

Curious:
It took until the 19th century that he was rediscovered. This was due to the photography. His painting style has, strangely, camera effects (focusing and blurring) - how could he paint these effects?

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Steps

top/left predrawing (pencil)
top/right blackshading (pencil)
bottom/left softshading rough (graphite-powder with fingers)
bottom/right softshading smooth (graphit-powder with folded paper)
bottom hardshading (pencil)

final drawing

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Tools/Material