Girl with a Pearl Earring

Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) by Johannes Vermeer. Its palette is led by black (#040313, 60%) and amber brown (#937859, 9%), with accents of dark amber brown, light amber, parchment, light muted blue and dark muted blue. Overall the canvas is dark, muted and warm.

Color notes

The turban is painted with natural ultramarine. Research in 2018 found that the dark background was once a green curtain, whose pigments have since faded.

Vermeer used natural ultramarine, ground from lapis lazuli and one of the most expensive pigments of his day, far more freely than his contemporaries, even in shadows and underlayers. Cool ultramarine against warm lead-tin yellow is his signature pairing.

Palette

#040313 MG 224 black 60.3% of canvas
#937859 MG 166 amber brown 8.7% of canvas
#2f211d MG 219 bistre 8.1% of canvas
#544335 MG 168 dark amber brown 7.4% of canvas
#c89b59 MG 033 light amber 5.6% of canvas
#eed9ca MG 201 parchment 4.1% of canvas
#87a4c6 MG 094 light muted blue 3.2% of canvas
#2e394e MG 099 dark muted blue 2.5% of canvas

Color families

Black 65%, Brown 21%, Blue 5%, Yellow 4%, Gray 3%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.28
Contrast: 0.69
Vividness: 0.018
Warmth: +0.66
Complexity: 142 cells
Hue range: 0.42
Focus: 0.29

Composition

59% of the visual weight is in the right half, 54% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.12 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 47% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 19% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1665
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 44.5 × 39.0 cm
Genre: tronie
Collection: Mauritshuis, The Hague

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