tracy chevalier the girl with the pearl earring essay

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful of their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Written by people who wish to remain anonymous Griet is a sixteen-year-old girl who is forced to work as a maid due to her family’s poor financial situation. She ends up working in the Vermeer household and soon becomes the personal assistant of Johannes Vermeer, helping him in his art studio. Griet is portrayed as intelligent, beautiful, and modest. She works hard to support her family, but is eventually forced to leave the Vermeer household by Johannes Vermeer’s wife, Catharina. Griet is based on the girl in Vermeer’s painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Johannes Vermeer is a painter based on the non-fictional painter of the same name. He takes Griet into his household as a maid, but ends up making her his personal assistant. He is a mysterious figure, but grows fond of Griet. After his death, Griet discovers that he left her the pearl earrings she wore in his portrait of her in his will. Catharina Bolnes Vermeer is Johannes Vermeer’s wife who becomes jealous of Griet after her husband takes her as his personal assistant. When Griet wears her pearl earrings while posing for a portrait by her husband, Catharina forces her to leave the household. Maria Thins is Catharina’s mother and Johannes Vermeer’s mother in law. Maria Thins treats Griet much better than her daughter does, and is often friendly with Griet--even when Catharina is upset over Griet wearing her earrings. Maertge is the eldest daughter of the Vermeer family. She and Griet are on relatively friendly terms. Cornelia is one of the two younger daughters of the Vermeer family. Unlike Maertge, Cornelia dislikes Griet, and the two do not get along. Cornelia often does things to get Griet in trouble and antagonize her in other ways. Tanneke is Griet’s fellow servant.
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful of their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 1999 historical novel by Tracy Chevalier. Chevalier was inspired to write the historical novel by a poster of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring that she bought herself at 19. She was captivated by the girl's ambiguous expression, claiming that her expression contained a plethora of contradictions. She wondered about her expression and the story behind the portrait.  Being an immense fan of Vermeer's work, Chevalier dedicated herself to researching Vermeer's life and work. Chevalier was determined to write the story of this mysterious woman.  Update this section! You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section. Update this section After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.
Study Pack The Girl with a Pearl Earring Study Pack contains: Girl with a Pearl Earring Study Guide Tracy Chevalier Biographies (1) Tracy Chevalier 4,064 words, approx. 14 pages Tracy Chevalier scored a bestseller with her 2000 novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, set in the Dutch city of Delft in the 1660s. Her heroine, Griet, is a teenager who enters the household of the paint. Read more Essays & Analysis (4) Girl with the Pearl Earning, A Review 1,463 words, approx. 5 pages As Griet poses for the renowned painter, Johannes Vermeer, she is speechless, yet overcome with agony in her pierced earlobes and in her heart. For her stunningly beautiful portrait, Johannes Vermeer. Read more Girl with a Pearl Earring 1,009 words, approx. 4 pages Girl with a pearl earring suggests that everyone suffers when society has different rules for different groups. The novel Girl with a Pearl Earring depicts the hardships that different social class. Read more Girl with a Pearl Earring Essay 597 words, approx. 2 pages Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, took place in Dreft, Holland. It is based on Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring painting, and how the author thinks the painting was created. Read more.
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful of their contributions and encourage you to make your own. The novel Girl with a Pearl Earring is a piece of historical fiction written by American author Tracy Chevalier. The story centers on Griet, who’s father has just lost his sight in a kiln accident while working at the tile factory. This is the initial incident of the story, as after the incident, Griet must go work as a maid for the famous Dutch painter Vermeer to build a more financially sound family.  The growing Vermeer family of five children, pair of strict mistresses and a long time servant is all prepared to make Griet’s life and work difficult. Though her skills as a maid are necessary to the household, her beauty, innocence, and artistic eye make Vermeer’s wife, Catharina immediately wary of Griet. Aside from cleaning the studio (of which Catharina is now banned) Griet’s duties consist of doing the family laundry, caring for the children, and fetching meat from a local butcher. While carrying out the latter duty, Griet meets and begins to interact daily with Pieter, the butcher’s son. Pieter informs Griet that her family ‘s home has been set under quarantine because of the black plague that has broken out in the district, and that Griet’s ten year old sister, Agnes, has died of the plague. This acts as the initial incident for a subplot within the book, involving romanticism between the two juveniles. While carrying out her other household duties, Griet sparks an interest within Vermeer, who recognizes Griet’s hidden artistic abilities. Vermeer takes advantage of Griet’s eagerness to please. Coupled with her sharp eye for color and careful manner, Griet makes for the perfect artists apprentice. Vermeer begins to educate Griet on how to properly mix paints from raw materials in secret, so as to not upset Catharina.
UNLIKE MOST OF JAN VERMEER'S PAINTINGS WHICH place individuals in highly detailed interior spaces, with hangings in the background and meticulously rendered domestic objects in the foreground, The Girl With a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) surrounds its subject in black: a background as dark as our knowledge of the pearl-wearing girl's life. In her novel Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier paints a background in words, inventing a woman named Griet who narrates how, at age seventeen, she became a servant in Vermeer's household. Hired to wash clothes and clean the painter's studio, Griet is secretly recruited by Vermeer to help him grind colors for paint and, eventually, to sit for the portrait. When the artist's wife, Catharina, discovers that her own pearl earrings were worn by a servant girl in the secret painting, she evicts Griet from the house. While it is quite clear from Griet's narrative that she has fallen in love with Vermeer, his feelings toward her remain enticingly ambiguous. Chevalier's 1999 novel, a New York Times Bestseller, was made into Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003), one of those rare films that enhances its literary source, largely due to the exquisite visuals. The art direction—a well-earned pun in this case—captures interiors reminiscent of seventeenth century paintings by Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, and Nicolaes Maes, as well as by Vermeer himself. In addition, warm yellows and reddish browns often bathe the mise en scene, generating the aura of Rembrandt van Rijn. This is a stunningly beautiful film, earning accolades for its rela­tively unknown director, Peter Webber, and Oscar nomina­tions for art direction, set decoration, cinematography, and costume design. Significantly, the novel is about visual perception, and it seems only right that we see Girl With a Pearl Earring rather than merely read it. The film, in fact, does a better job.
In her novel Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier tells the invented story of the girl who modeled for Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting by the same name. It is 1664, and Griet, who is sixteen years old, must leave her family to work as a maid for the Vermeer family. Griet’s father is a well-respected man who used to paint tiles for a living. However, since he was blinded in an accident, his family has struggled. The painter Vermeer has agreed to take on a maid in order to help the family. Vermeer and his pregnant wife, Catharina, come to meet Griet. Griet is preparing vegetables for a soup and she has organized them by color in a circle. Vermeer instantly notices that she has arranged the vegetables by color and asks her how she decided to arrange her vegetables. Griet, who is always careful not to betray her feelings, does her best to avoid his questions. Catherina also inspects Griet’s work. She knocks a knife to the ground, and Griet quickly returns it to the table. When they leave, Griet presses her lips together, which is enough to signal her discomfort to her mother. However, Griet’s mother reminds her that their family is no longer able to support itself. Already, an attraction between Griet and Vermeer has been established—and it clearly threatens Catharina. The Vermeer home, which is located in Papist’s Corner, a Catholic neighborhood within Delft, Holland, is unusual to Griet. She was raised a Protestant, and the paintings of religious scenes, such as the crucifixion, unnerve her. The family also surprises her, especially the children, of which there are several. Maertga is roughly the same age as Griet’s younger sister, Agnes. The younger daughter, Cornelia, catches Griet’s attention—she can tell Cornelia will make mischief. When Cornelia laughs at one of Griet’s instructions, the latter slaps her. Griet knows that this will not be her last.