Who was the Young Pearl? The Mystery of Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer – 1632 – 1675)

Each work of Johannes Vermeer, it's a pleasure in sight. In it we see and perceive the sensitivity, the delicacy, and a wonderful, attractive, masterful light management that leaves us enraptured, amazed and that immerses us in the scene, that makes us live it and that moves us, we simply fall in love.

His great mastery, his technical deployment, makes him, among all the painters of history, incomparable.

Vermeer is perfect and each of his paintings is considered a great work of art, and it is.

One of them, in particular, is the one known worldwide as: The Girl with the Pearl

An enigmatic young woman who watches us from the darkness of a canvas.

Even today it is speculated and discussed, who was that young woman, with a look so sweet at the same time as powerful, with a face that for some is disturbing, and for others, angelic and that transmits an immense sense of peace, at the same time incomparable, for the sweetness and innocence of her gesture.

Original title: Meisje met de parel (Girl with pearl).

Date: Approximately 1665.

Technique: Oil on canvas.

Size: It is quite small, it measures only 44.5 x 39 cm.

Where it is: Currently, it is exhibited in the Mauritshuis from The Hague, the Netherlands.

The immortalized girl is a mystery.

It represents one of the most important unknowns in the history of art.

There are several theories, many speculations but nothing proven.

 The Girl with the Pearl is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic, most fantastic and famous figures in art history, but his identity is a mystery that has never been solved.

Who was she? The main theories:

Since there are no documents confirming his identity (such as orders or records of models of the time), experts handle several hypotheses:

1 – An anonymous model: The most accepted theory is that it is not the portrait of a specific person, but of a ‘tronie’ (Dutch word for "head" or "face").

Tronies were character studies that painters conducted to demonstrate their ability to capture expressions, exotic features, or play of light and shadow.

They were sold as works of art by themselves, but they were not commemorative portraits of a client.

2 – Maria, Vermeer's daughter: Vermeer had 15 sons, and his eldest daughter, Maria, would have had the appropriate age (about 16-17 years) around 1665, date on which it is believed that the work was painted. It is plausible that he used his own daughter as a model, as many other painters did.

3 – The daughter of his patron, Pieter van Ruijven: This man was Vermeer's main sponsor and owned many of his works.

It's possible the young lady was his daughter, Magdalena, but there is no evidence to corroborate it.

4 – The maid: The novelThe Girl with the PearlTracy Chevalier's (and subsequent film) popularized the romantic idea that the model was Griet, a maid from Vermeer's house.

While it is a fascinating theory, it is purely fictitious and is not supported by any historical evidence.

Why is this painting so famous and special?

The look: His gaze is intense and direct, almost overwhelming. It seems to turn towards the viewer in an intimate and fleeting moment, creating an immediate connection.

The light: Vermeer is the master of light. The soft illumination that caresses your face, highlights wet lips and creates sparkles in the pearl, is simply sublime.

The colors: The combination of blue and yellow turbans on the dark and neutral background makes your figure stand out with incredible strength.

The pearl: It's not a real pearl. It is too large and its reflection is not physically accurate. It's more of a optical illusion Masterfully achieved with just a few brushstrokes of white paint. It is the focal point that immediately attracts the eye.

Innocent sensuality: The half-open mouth (a very unusual detail for the time) and the pearl (symbol of purity, but also of vanity and richness) create an ambiguity between innocence and a veiled sensuality that makes it tremendously intriguing.

 The girl with the pearl has no name. Her identity was lost in history, but her powerful presence, captured by Vermeer's genius, has made her an eternal icon, in the "Mona Lisa of the North" who looks at us from the past with a secret she will never reveal.

In the part that touches me, I can say that I will be an eternal lover of this fantastic work of a technical execution, perfect. and of this young woman, who at times seems that something will tell me, but that her indecision and shyness, does not allow it. A feeling similar to that awakened by other unique artists such as Louis Wain.

Vermeer and the "Dark Chamber"

Johannes Vermeer, who is one, of the two or three painters I admire.

I was forced to stop at several stages of Vermeer's painting, in his pictorial technique and in certain parts, to try to discern, how he had achieved color and how he would have achieved that transparency and light, to obtain a perfect skin; I know the color technique he used, but I doubted if the camera obscura would intervene, that is, if it would alter the final result of the color.

The camera obscura (from Latin camera obscura, "dark room") was a precursor optical device of the camera, and is fundamental to understanding the technique and style of painters such as Johannes Vermeer.

Vermeer began his paintings with a accurate drawing (possibly with the help of a camera obscura).

What is it and how does it work?

In essence, it is a very simple physical principle that projects an image of the outer world onto an inner surface.

1. Basic concept: You take a box or a room completely closed to light.
2. A small hole: In one of its walls a very small hole (estenopo) is made.
3. Image Formation: Rays of light reflecting off exterior objects pass through that hole and project onto the opposite wall.
4. Features of the projected image:
   • The image appears inverted (head) and reversed (left-right).
   • It's an image crisp but poorly lit.
   • He's got one. depth of field infinite (everything is focused).
   • Displays a blur effect (bokeh primitive) in very bright areas.

To make it usable, a lens was often placed in the hole to achieve a brighter and sharper image, and a mirror to project the right-side-up image on a horizontal surface, such as a table, where the artist could trace or study the projection.

Why are you so associated with Vermeer?

Although there is no irrefutable documentary evidence (such as a camera obscura in his inventory), most experts are convinced that Vermeer knew about it and used it for several obvious reasons in his paintings:

Exceptional Light Quality: His paintings capture light with a fidelity and realism that are very reminiscent of a photograph. The camera obscura exaggerates the contrasts between light and shadow, a very marked effect in his works.

Bright points of light ("Confusion Discs"): This is the most convincing argument. In his paintings, areas of intense light (such as reflections in the eyes, in a ceramic jug or in a pearl) are not painted as defined shapes, but as small circles or diffuse spots of light. This is exactly the optical effect ("bokeh«) which produces a primitive lens out of focus in a camera obscura. The human eye does not see like this; A camera does.

Composition and Perspective: The poses of his figures sometimes seem "snapshot", with characters in the middle of a movement, as if capturing a frozen moment. The architectural perspective in its interiors is geometrically perfect, something the camera obscura helps to plot accurately.

Saturation and Softness of Color: The camera obscura image tends to smooth out contours and simplify complex details, which matches the way Vermeer simplified shapes and applied color in planes of light.

The camera obscura was not a "secret" nor was it considered cheating. It was a study tool well known among artists and scientists since the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci It had already described its operation at the beginning of the 16th century.

Artists like Canaletto They used it in a documented way to trace the precise architectural views of Venice.

For Vermeer, it was not a machine that painted for him, but a ‘mechanical eye’ means: which gave him the possibility to:

Study the effects of light and composition in a new way.

Transfer the basic composition and perspective to the canvas with great accuracy.

Analyze how he saw the light of the optical instrument itself, and then translated it with his incredible talent and patience into painting.

The camera obscura was an optical device that projected a real image of the world on an inner surface. For Vermeer, it was most likely a crucial tool that helped him achieve his unique, hyper-realistic and light-filled style, but it was his artistic genius that transformed that mechanical projection into works of art of incomparable beauty and sensitivity.

The Painting Technique of La Joven de la Perla

As I said above, I know the color technique that Johannes used, but I had a huge doubt: Would you use Grisalla or Verdaccio? Or neither?

Evidence suggests that Vermeer most likely used a form of verdaccio or a tonal primer, more than a grisalla in the classic Italian style.

1. Grisalla (disambiguation)

• What is: A monochromatic technique that uses only shades of gray, black and white to model shapes and chiaroscuro. It was often used as a lower stage (base paint) on which coloured veils were then applied. It is characteristic of Flemish painting and the first Italian Renaissance.
• Did Vermeer use it? There is no solid evidence that Vermeer used a strict grisaille (gray only) in his works. His approach was more tonal and colourful from the base.

2. Verdaccio

What is: An Italian term for a monochromatic base paint, made with tones green, grey-green or brown earthy. It was very common in Renaissance fresco painting for meats, since the green color created a perfect base to neutralize and give depth to the pink and warm tones of the skin that would be applied later in veils.

Did Vermeer use it? It is the most accepted theory among experts. Technical analyses (with X-rays and macro-infrared photographs) of his paintings reveal the following:

The Evidence: The Vermeer Method

The studies of his works, as The Milkmaid o Lady writing a letter with her maid, show that Vermeer began his paintings with a accurate drawing (possibly with the help of a camera obscura).

Then, I applied a base layer or underpainting with the following characteristics:

It was not gray, but tonal: Used neutral tones, but with color. Mixed black, toasted earth (umber) and white to create a range of warm, greyish and earthy colours. In some shaded areas, touches of green or brown are detected.

Structural function: On this basis, Vermeer meticulously defined composition, forms and, most importantly, map of light and shadow (the chiaroscuro). This stage was so detailed that it was almost a complete painting in tonal value.

Base for glazes: On this dry basis, he applied thin, semi-transparent layers of color (veladuras). The underlying tonal base interacted with these colors, giving incredible depth and luminosity. For example, an area illuminated at the base with white, upon receiving a blue veil, became a much brighter blue.

While the grisaille is strictly achromatic (no color) and the verdaccio is specifically green, Vermeer employed a mixed technique or a personal variation.

We can say that his method more closely resembles the concept of verdaccio (one underpainting coloured and non-neutral) than that of the grisaille. However, its base palette was wider, using a range of Greys, Browns and Neutral Lands to lay the foundations of light.

Vermeer didn't work with a pure grisalla. He used a tonal and colored underpainting (with elements reminiscent of verdaccio but not exclusively green) to build the structure of light and shadow of his works, on which he applied his famous and luminous colored veils. 

This meticulous technique is one of the key reasons why his work is so small and brilliant.

Forever Vermeer

I hope that my note about this painter has been to your liking, and perhaps, there is also the possibility, that this awakens your curiosity, to seek, to know more about this painter, who only made about 36 paintings throughout his life.

Of course, I will continue to write about it, and to investigate it, in the hope that some day some indication, some small clue or sign, may be discovered of: Who was it, The Pearl Girl?

In the meantime, I will continue to learn from these great masters, and try to reveal their secrets, strictly speaking, to painting.

I hope you liked it. Lucem Ferre.

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