Girl with a Pearl Earring
Delft, 1664. Sixteen-year-old Griet is sent to work as a maid in the busy household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, whose family cannot always afford to feed the servants who keep it running. Quiet and observant, Griet is assigned to clean the master's studio without disturbing anything, and her instinctive eye for light, color, and composition slowly draws Vermeer's attention.
As Griet is pulled deeper into the painter's work, mixing his colors and eventually sitting for him, the intimacy of the studio sets her at odds with Vermeer's jealous wife, his shrewd mother-in-law, and the rigid expectations of her class and faith. A wealthy patron's interest makes her position more precarious still, and the portrait that will become one of the world's most famous paintings threatens to cost Griet everything.
Tracy Chevalier's acclaimed novel imagines the story behind Vermeer's luminous "Girl with a Pearl Earring." Spare, sensuous, and finely observed, it is a quiet study of art, desire, and the powerlessness of a young woman caught in a household not her own.
A perceptive young maid in the Vermeer household who becomes the painter's assistant and model.
A wealthy patron whose interest in Griet threatens her safety.
The Delft painter whose quiet attention to Griet unsettles his home.
Vermeer's wife, wary and jealous of Griet's place in the studio.