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Girl Pearl Earring

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Girl with a Pearl Earring is a fictional book that is based off of the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. It gives the painting a background story and a makes up personas for Vermeer and the model in the photo. The Girl with a Pearl Earring is a very historical painting and is sometimes referred to as the Dutch Mona Lisa. It is very well known for highlighting the artistic achievements of the Dutch Golden Age. This book is an interesting interpretation on the backstory of the painting; it also gives insight on the time period and the artistic style of the Dutch Golden Age. After Griet’s father went blind she is forced to get a job to support her family. She is hired as a maid by the famous artist Johannes Vermeer and his wife Catharina. Griet eventually develops an unlikely friendship with Johannes. He asks her to clean his studio that no one else is even allowed to enter. Johannes asks Griet to run special chores for him, such as getting him his paints, which he normally did by himself. He also has her grind and makes the paints for his art pieces. Catharina would get jealous that Griet gets to spend more time with her husband than she does so …show more content…

The most interesting thing I learned from it was how they made paint back in 1600s. They grinded up different substances into a paste and made paint out of those. Ultramarine was one of the most difficult shades of paint to make “the process of extracting a pure blue from the stone so difficult, that he worked with it himself”(180). This shows how important the painting of the girl with a pearl earing is, because a good portion of the painting is done with blue paint. The author does discuss historical events that are happening around the time period that this painting was painted. The plague is a somewhat serious threat in the book. Griet’s little sister Agnes dies because of the plague. Pieter informed Griet that Angus was infected “She is very

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