Was The Pearl Earring In Vermeer’s Painting Costume Jewelry After All?

Mention Johannes Vermeer, and chances are, one will automatically think of The Girl with a Pearl Earring, arguably the artist’s most famous work. However, despite its title, it turns out the woman depicted in the painting may not have been adorned with a real pearl.

This discovery recently resurfaced as the artwork goes on display at the Rijksmuseum’s major exhibition. As per Artnet News, researchers from the Mauritshuis Museum first theorized this in 2020, when costume jewelry specialists pointed out that the pearl was too big to be a real jewel.

Co-curator Pieter Roelofs concurred, explaining that a pearl of the size portrayed in the work would have been “astronomically expensive” back in the 17th century. A record for a pearl sold in 1632 showed that it cost £500 (US$605), or equivalent to £100,000 (US$121,000) today.

Chances are, the figure in the painting was wearing imitation glass pearls, which were sold by Venetian glass blowers during the time. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that the painting received its new title describing the pearl.

The change only happened at the last Vermeer retrospective at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC from 1995 to 1996, when Mauritshuis Curator Quentin Buvelot renamed the piece, previously called Girl With The Turban.

Rijksmuseum Director Martine Gosselink offers a different take, saying that the earring in the image is “neither a pearl nor glass” but “simply paint.”

Perhaps the truth of the matter was that Vermeer just added the detail with two simple brushstrokes, paying no mind to its provenance.

[via The Art Newspaper and Artnet News, cover image via Giorgio Morara | Dreamstime.com]