![]() ![]() ![]() Griet finds herself carefully negotiating a path of survival between Maria Thins, Vermeer’s imperious mother-in-law Catherina, his insecure and eternally pregnant wife Tanneke, the senior servant in the household and Cornelia, the sly and scheming daughter. ![]() ![]() This sets Griet up for difficulties in the household, which is full of women vying for the tiny bit of power and authority available to them. She is the only one in the household allowed into his studio, because she has discovered the knack of cleaning the setting for paintings in progress without disturbing them. She is a lowly maid and laundress, but catches Vermeer’s eye from the start because he notices her awareness of color and shape as she arranges sliced vegetables on a table. The girl in question is Griet, a sixteen-year-old girl who goes to work in Vermeer’s tumultuous household. In Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier brings to life the subject and circumstances of one Vermeer’s best known and loved paintings. What paintings we have of his, however, are memorable with their luminosity and portrayal of everyday life in seventeeth century Delft, Holland. Almost nothing is known of painter Johannes Vermeer’s life, and he was not a prolific painter. ![]()
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