Author Tracy Chevalier had a 16-year relationship with Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring before she ever decided to write her novel of the same name. She purchased a poster of the painting when she was in college, and then brought it with her and hung it every place she lived for the next 16 years. (In fact, according to her TED Talk, she still has it, 30+ years later. And—like most writers—she couldn’t help but wonder about the story behind the painting.

Who was the girl? Why did she have such a conflicted expression on her face—neither exactly happy, nor sad?

She began to see the painting as a portrait of the relationship between the model and the painter, as opposed to a portrait of the girl herself.After doing some research, Chevalier discovered that there is no historical record of who any of Vermeer’s models were, nor much to learn about the painter himself. For a novelist, that is gold! It meant she could decide the story for herself. Finding the story in the painting she started out thinking that the girl might be Vermeer’s daughter, but more research about the Dutch art of the time revealed that painting a woman with her mouth open indicated sexual availability—definitely not appropriate for a painting of his daughter. But that only deepened the mystery and the intrigue.

Chevalier decided that the girl was a servant with an intimate, but extremely complicated and conflicted relationship to the painter. The other facts Chevalier discovered about Vermeer’s life added more complexity to the relationships in the novel. He lived with his mother-in-law, his wife, and their 11 children in a house where he had a room for his studio. Sounds like utter chaos to me, but Vermeer’s paintings are almost preternaturally calm. Chevalier decided that must indicate that he kept everyone out of his studio while he worked… Except, perhaps, allowing the maid in to clean… Other details of the painting provided other details for the novel. The girl in the painting is wearing very plain clothes compared to Vermeer’s other women, except for that exquisite pearl earring. If she was a servant, it couldn’t possibly be her own. Vermeer’s wife’s perhaps? It wasn’t a straightforward love story, nor a straightforward affair. Like the exquisite light Vermeer is known for pouring into his paintings, Chevalier poured light onto one possible explanation of the identity of the girl and her relationship with Vermeer and his family.

Have you read Girl With A Pearl Earring? How did you experience the interplay of the novel and the artwork? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.