When it comes to the painter Vermeer, everyone may not know much, but his representative work "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" is famous in the world, and often appears in front of the public, being imitated as an object of imitation, imitated by animation design, imitated by portrait photography, and even made into a movie. What kind of work is a painting with such charm?
A girl with pearl earrings
Created in 1665, the Girl with the Pearl Earring is one of the masterpieces of the Dutch genre master Johannes Vermeer.
We can see that the painting is covered with pure black as the background, the girl in the painting wears a blue and yellow turban, slightly turning in the direction of the audience, and the girl in the painting has her lips slightly open, staring sideways, as if there are thousands of thoughts, as if she wants to pour out something. The position of the middle right is the location of the girl, and the girl's left eye is just in the position of the midline of the visual picture, and it is also connected with the laws of photography, making the picture look more beautiful and stable. In the black background, the girl stands out, like a bright light breaking the darkness. Although the color of the picture is ordinary and limited, the effect of layers and shadows is rich, making the picture more three-dimensional. The picture is mainly composed of three colors of red, yellow and blue, of which the use of red color is weakened, so that the picture is more rustic, quiet and harmonious. Vermeer liked to paint in lemon yellow and blue, as did van Gogh, a fellow Dutch painter. It's just that Vermeer is longer than painting indoors, while Van Gogh prefers outdoor scenery. This also makes Vermeer's painting style more calm and idyllic, while Van Gogh's works are more enthusiastic and unrestrained. Another remarkable feature of this painting is the shape of a teardrop worn by the girl's left ear
The crow on the wheat field Van Gogh
Pearl earrings, looming in the shadow of the girl's neck, are the finishing touch to the whole painting. Pearls are often a symbol of chastity in Vermeer's paintings, and some critics believe that the painting was probably made on the eve of the marriage of a young girl.
Vermeer (1632-1675), born in Delft, the Netherlands, studied painting with Rembrandt's students in his early years. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, a group of painters who painted still life, landscapes and customs appeared, who focused on ordinary small things and ordinary people, and no longer paid attention to noble and grand subjects, which also formed the "Dutch Small Painting School", that is, they painted more small paintings to depict the details of life. The Girl with the Pearl Earrings is also a small-scale oil painting (44.5 ×39cm). Of course, this is closely related to the capitalist system at that time, in the mid-17th century, with the development of capitalism, the decline of religion, ordinary citizens gained more democracy and freedom, painting also gradually got rid of the shackles of religion, from serving the court gradually to the civic class, Vermeer was one of the representative painters, he was good at capturing the sublime and beautiful in the ordinary. In addition to "The Girl with the Pearl Earrings", there are also works such as "The Woman Who Poured Milk" and "The Painter in the Studio". This work is also known as the "Mona Lisa of the North".
Photography
The woman who poured milk
The painter in the studio