Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Vermeer and his wife have four daughters, one of whom is pregnant. Since they need help financially, she decides to become a maid in Vermeer’s house because it will bring them more income than if she stayed home doing nothing or becoming something else such as a milkmaid or washerwoman (which are other jobs women did back then). Her brother is now learning how to be a painter but isn’t yet earning any money for the family. Her father has been blinded from an accident at work and can no longer paint tiles for people to buy he used to do that as his job. She’s 16 and living with her family, which includes her father, mother, younger sister Agnes and brother Frans. This novel is narrated by a girl named Griet who lives in the Dutch city of Delft. And she has to find her way through this new and strange life outside the loving Protestant family she grew up in, now fragmented by accident and death.Īs Griet becomes part of her master's work, their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within the ordered household and even - as the scandal seeps out - ripples in the world beyond.1-Page Summary of Girl With A Pearl Earring Overview On the verge of womanhood, Griet also contends with the growing attentions both from a local butcher and from Vermeer's patron, the wealthy van Ruijven. Six children (and counting) fill out the household, dominated by six-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should. In contrast to her work in her master's studio, Griet must carve a place for herself in a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer's volatile wife Catharina, his shrewd mother-in-law Maria Thins, and their fiercely loyal maid Tanneke. Vermeer slowly draws her into the world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings. Though different in upbringing, education and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things.

Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention. Girl With a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Who is the model and why has she been painted? What is she thinking as she stares out at us? Are her wide eyes and enigmatic half-smile innocent or seductive? And why is she wearing a pearl earring? One of the best-loved paintings in the world is a mystery.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier