Preview

Girl with the Pearl Earring Essay Example

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
412 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Girl with the Pearl Earring Essay Example
English Honors
8/28/2012
Vermeer’s paintings are known across the world to people who have an artistic eye. In the novel The Girl with the Pearl Earrings Griet is the maid in Vermeer’s house hold. The family feels that he should paint faster so he can earn more money. Griet secretly becomes Vermeer’s assistant as well as his inspiration for his next famous painting. Vermeer’s paintings are more than just paint on a canvas it tells a story, it’s inspirational and says a lot for a painting. The novel helped me to understand Vermeer as a painter. By reading the novel I now know how creatively he uses his paints to create a master piece. In his painting there is depth and light. In his painting, Woman with a Water Jug he focuses his attention on the right amount of lighting to create perfection. He gives the painting an amazing realness. The way Vermeer takes his time to make his painting into perfection, I have a new appreciation for paintings. Vermeer uses different paints to make different colors, so once you look at the painting you may see one color but really he uses many different colors to create the color that we see. Like for instance if you look at the Woman with the water jugs hat we see it as white but if you look at it long and hard you will see that the hat is painted with blue, yellow, and violet but Vermeer paints it so we see white. That takes a gentle hand and patients. Examining the painting made me view the paintings like Griet did in the novel. Viewing the painting made me realize what inspirited the author Tracy Chevalier to write this novel. The painting itself shows a mysteriousness to it and the painting of the Girl with the Pearl Earrings facial expression made Tracy want to create a story about the dramatization on her face. The Woman with the Water Jug is just as graceful as the Girl with the Pearl Earrings as Tracy tried to portray it in the novel. Vermeer’s paintings make people look outside the box rather than just looking at

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The painting tells the story of Beauty and the Beast in one image. It reminds me that love comes in all shapes and sizes and that you shouldn’t judge a person by their appearances. Not everyone is who you think they are at first glance. I love…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    * I think Holmes uses the allusion in his poem because he wants to be specific on the term Harpies.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What does Edwards mean when he says, “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string”?…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ap Euro Summer Project

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Set from 1664- 1676 this slanting novel illustrates the life of Griet, a common maid living in Delft, as she works for the family of the city’s most renowned painter. At only the age of sixteen when she starts to work for the Vermeer family, Griet is expected to know her place and pick up her duties like second nature. The household dominated by mother and daughter alike Catharina Vermeer and Maria Thins; Griet must be quick on her feet with the help of the present maid, Tanneke. She was brought to the Vermeer household for an exceedingly specific reason, to clean her master’s studio. It doesn’t take very long after Griet’s arrival at the Vermeer home for her to turn the heads of the master painter, some of his prosperous clientele, and even the local butcher. One of Vermeer’s clients takes a specific interest in Griet; an internally disfigured man by the name of Van Ruijven takes a liking to the “wide eyed maid” and can’t help himself but to take a closer look. Over the course of Griet cleaning Master Vermeer’s studio she has found a hidden passion for the world of art with its exotic colors and dazzling lights, shifting shadows and indescribable beauty. Ultimately Griet becomes a central part of Vermeer’s work, allowing them to become closer, creating tension and ripples in the structure of the Vermeer household. Just as Griet begins to find comfort as her routine of cleaning, cooking, and looking after the children, she is requested as a model in a classic Vermeer painting for none other than the furtive Van Ruijven. Much to his dismay, Master Vermeer had no option but to take the work for his hastily growing family. She is posed looking over her left shoulder,…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He is perhaps challenging the viewer to see more that physical beauty but rather an internal need to be desired regardless of our outer shell or weathered state. He used detail and traditional symbolism of beauty in the clothing, headdress, the red rose, the seductive corset, and the lifted chin and soft eyes. Perhaps the timeless review and contemplation of intent was in fact Massys true intent of this piece, as it has withstood the test of time as a historically famous work of art. The initial dislike for the woman drew me in. The complexity of the painting made be find aesthetic beauty, and the content itself keeps me perplexing on the possibilities of intent. It is truly a respectable and intriguing display of art and…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is a mixed blessing to be able to see the movie version of a popular book. In most cases, Hollywood veers from the text and the viewer is left with a watered down version of the original. In the case of the Princess Bride, the cinema version is very close to the book. One such scene is Inigo and Fezzik’s visit to Miracle Max in search of a miracle. Setting, conflict, and dialogue are three points of high congruency.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bronwyn Oliver Case Study

    • 1989 Words
    • 7 Pages

    2. How does the work attempt to express the personal views of the Artist? The artwork automatically portrays that the artist likes to play around with her artworks, and doesn’t make them in an ordinary manner. It shows us the abstract and unusual side to art.…

    • 1989 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist who lived from November 15, 1887 until March 6, 1986. Ms O’Keeffe became interest in art at an early age, and was pushed by her parents because they saw that she had a talent. She studied at various schools in her early life, which helped form her style. After moving to New York in 1916 she met Alfred Stieglitz whom she later married. Later years in her life she moved to New Mexico where she found a lot of her inspiration for her paintings. Ms. O’Keeffe has been a major figure in American art since the 1920’s…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I have chosen the aspect of distraction. Towards the beginning of the book, the man, who was Wormwood’s patient, became a Christian. The idea of Christianity was still very new in his mind, and he did not really understand what he was supposed to do or how he was supposed to act. Screwtape used this confusion as an opportunity to distract the patient from God. In letter two, Screwtape told Wormwood to make sure that when the patient went to church, he would notice any neighbors that would sing out of tune, have boots that squeak, have double chins, or even odd clothes. Wormwood was supposed to use these things as distractions from the message being preached at the front of the church.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ingenue and the Gold Dress

    • 1918 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The focus of this paper will be “Ingenue” by Richard Judson Zolan and “The Gold Dress” by Bill Brauer. The focal point of both paintings is a beautiful woman and this is where the similarities stop. Zolan’s focus is completely within the boundaries of the painting while Brauer’s leads your eye off the plane insinuating there is more going on than is captured within the boundaries of the painting. The word ingenue refers to a naive, innocent young woman while the woman in “The Gold Dress” is definitely more provocatively situated. Both artists are Americans, Zolan from Chicago and Brauer from New York. Zolan studied under Louis Rittman, a personal friend and student of Claude Monet, the French impressionist, and Brauer under Frederico Castellon, a Spanish-American painter and illustrator of children’s books. Zolan’s style reflects the influence of Monet with the effects of light while Brauer is more sensual and moody, using deep intense colors and beautifully rendered curves. Both works of art are beautifully painted and express the great talent of both men.…

    • 1918 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Caravaggio

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Unlike Caravaggio, Vermeer tended to paint his works around his Dutch heritage. Many times this entailed paintings of women. Compared to Caravaggio, Vermeer’s painting took on a more laid back appeal. Some of these paintings include “Woman with a Pearl Necklace” and “Woman Holding a Balance.” Everyday life seemed to be what inspired many of Vermeer’s works. In Caravaggio’s paintings there is a lot of sadness and dark scenes dealing with religion. Vermeer’s paintings stayed more to the life he…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook, he takes us on a sort of adventure back through time in the seventeenth century through these seven paintings of Johannes Vermeer. Brook does this hoping to show us a few things about the economy and cultural changes, along with how the other countries are adapting. In the book Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook, he takes us through the seventeenth century bringing out the economic and cultural changes, the influence on the European world, and the influence on China.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Getty Museum Visit

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As I strolled the room, I took care to notice every piece of art that was displayed. The van Gogh caught my eye immediately, but, unfortunately, there were restrictions on my ability to write about it. There had to be about forty works in the room. No sooner than I had started to look around again, however, that a second painting caught my eye. I had never seen it before, but something about it looked very familiar. Possibly the brilliant orange glistening over the mind-numbing grays and blues. Or maybe it was the quick brushstrokes that seemed to want to move quickly enough to literally capture the light being emitted from the incandescent sun. Whatever the case, as I stepped closer to the work, I realized what should have been obvious the second I placed my gaze upon it. It was a Monet.…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Snow White, the first Disney Princess, was created during the Great Depression in 1937 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Being the first Princess, she portrays the traditional social structure of women during the 1930s. Snow White is soft spoken and submissive, sweet natured, temperate, and obedient to the men in her society. Not only is she the ideal women in her personality, but she represents the classical idea of beauty with lips as red as rubies and skin as fair as snow.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Girl with a Pearl Earring

    • 2758 Words
    • 12 Pages

    1. In Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier treats us to a richly appointed portrait of intersecting faiths, fracturing family dynamics, erotic awakenings, community scandals, religious tensions, and aesthetic compromises—all filtered brilliantly through the eyes of the young narrator, Griet, whose concise, wide-eyed perspective functions much like Vermeer’s camera obscura, rendering with particularly sharp precision and subtle insight the character of seventeenth-century Delft itself. “The camera obscura helps me to see in a different way, to see more of what is there,” Vermeer muses. Discuss the way in which Chevalier’s writing style achieves a similar effect. What techniques does she use to establish the novel’s particular tone and tension, to enrich the imagery, to develop her characters’ motives, and to encourage us “to see more of what is there”? 2. In the particular emotional realm of this novel, the issue of “seeing” is central. Griet endeavors for much of the novel to manipulate all that she sees into a sort of harmony, beginning with the soup vegetables she so carefully arranges so that they will not “fight when they are side by side.” Likewise, Vermeer’s art relies upon his ability to see the universal in even the most prosaic settings. Griet’s father cannot see at all, and not coincidentally, he is perhaps the novel’s most tragic and impotent figure. What does “seeing” mean to the novel’s other characters? Is it fair to say that, of all the characters, it is Maria Thins who sees the most clearly in the end? 3. Compare Girl With a Pearl Earring to other historical novels you’ve read in recent years (e.g.: Jane Smiley’s The Greenlanders, A. S. Byatt’s Possession, Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, and so on). How does Chevalier's novel—focused, detailed, and tightly framed as it is—complement, complicate, and/or depart altogether from the standard themes and trappings of…

    • 2758 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays