Book Group - Girl with a Pearl Earring

detail of girl with a pearl earring

Yesterday I started listing to Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring. (Here's the Amazon page on the book.) It is a fictional account of a young maid who is the subject of Dutch painter Jan Vermeer's painting of the same name.

Griet, a 16 year old woman becomes the maid for the Vermeer's some time after her father, a tile-maker, is blinded in a work accident. She has a natural talent for understanding color and composition.

I'm listening to the Recorded Books unabridged version on cassette. I didn't know that this had been made into a film. I'll have to see this after I finish the book.

Above is a detail from the actual work. Here is a link to the Art Archive page where you can see a much larger version of the complete picture.