Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring: 2 Guilders, Lapis Lazuli, and the Earring That May Not Be a Pearl

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) painted approximately 46 works in his lifetime, all of them small-format domestic scenes and portraits of extraordinary technical refinement. The Girl with a Pearl Earring is his most celebrated work and one of the most globally recognised figurative paintings in any medium. It was purchased in 1902 at auction for 2 guilders 30 cents — the cheapest price ever paid at auction for a Vermeer. It is now in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, where it has been the museum’s primary draw since its acquisition. DeckArts Berlin from ~$140.

The Painting: Tronie, Not Portrait

Meisje met de parel (Girl with a Pearl Earring, c.1665, oil on canvas, 44.5 × 39 cm, Mauritshuis The Hague) is technically a tronie — a Dutch Golden Age genre of painting depicting a character type or expressive face rather than a specific identifiable portrait sitter. Unlike a commissioned portrait, which depicts a known individual for a specific patron who wished to record their likeness, a tronie is a study of an anonymous figure’s expressive qualities: the specific fall of light on a face, the specific qualities of an expression, the specific rendering of a textile or ornament.

The distinction between tronie and portrait matters for the painting’s interpretation: the girl in the painting has no confirmed identity and was almost certainly not a commissioned portrait. The painting was made as an independent artistic and commercial object, not as a record of a specific person. This anonymity is both the painting’s interpretive challenge (who is she? the question has driven 350 years of speculation) and its interpretive richness: the turned-back pose and the direct gaze create a conversational quality that a portrait of a specific known person cannot provide. The anonymous face is simultaneously intimate and mysterious — close and withheld at the same time.

The composition: the figure is depicted against an absolute near-black ground — no spatial context, no furniture, no architectural setting, no landscape. Only the face, the white collar, the blue-yellow turban, and the earring. The figure is turning: she appears to have been moving away and has turned back to look at the viewer, caught in the specific transitional gesture of someone who has just heard their name called. The slightly parted lips suggest she is about to speak. This poses-caught-in-motion quality is the painting’s specific emotional register — neither departure nor arrival but the specific moment between them.

Vermeer’s Biography: 46 Paintings, 11 Children, 1 Baker

Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632 and died there in 1675, aged 43, in debt. He is one of the most technically accomplished painters in the history of Western art and one of the least documented: his biography is so sparsely attested by contemporary records that scholars have debated whether he trained formally, how he earned his living, and whether he used optical instruments (a camera obscura) to achieve the extraordinary precision of his light and spatial rendering.

What is documented: Vermeer converted to Catholicism to marry Catharina Bolnes in 1653; he became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke (the Delft painters’ guild) in 1653; he had 11 children (four died in infancy); he supplemented his income as an art dealer; and he died in 1675 leaving significant debts to Hendrick van Buyten, a baker, who accepted two of Vermeer’s paintings in partial settlement of a bread debt of 617 guilders. The baker became the owner of Vermeer paintings; Vermeer’s widow went bankrupt. The painting that was held by the baker is not identified in surviving records.

Vermeer produced approximately 46 surviving works (the exact number is disputed; some attributions remain contested). His output is the smallest of any comparable major artist — Rembrandt produced approximately 300 paintings; Van Gogh produced approximately 900 in 10 years; Vermeer produced 46 in approximately 20 years of mature work. The slowness and the precision are connected: Vermeer’s light studies required extended observation and multiple paint layers applied over long drying periods. He could not have been a fast or prolific painter given the technical demands of his process.

2 Guilders 30 Cents: The Cheapest Vermeer in History

The Girl with a Pearl Earring was purchased on 21 May 1902 at a public auction in The Hague by Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, a Dutch collector, for the sum of 2 guilders and 30 cents (approximately €0.21 in contemporary currency, though purchasing power comparisons of this kind are imprecise). Des Tombe bequeathed the painting to the Mauritshuis in The Hague upon his death in 1903; it has been in the Mauritshuis’s collection since then.

The price of 2 guilders 30 cents is the cheapest confirmed auction price ever paid for a painting that is now in a major museum’s permanent collection. At the same 1902 auction, other lots sold for significantly more; the Pearl Earring’s condition at the time (dark varnish, attributed to the Dutch School generally rather than to Vermeer specifically) depressed its price. The attribution to Vermeer was confirmed after cleaning; the 1902 attribution listed in the auction catalogue was approximate.

The contrast with current valuation: no Vermeer has been offered at public auction since 2004 (when Woman Reading a Letter sold for approximately $25 million at Christie’s). Scholars estimate that a confirmed Vermeer at auction today would sell for €200–400 million based on current comparable auction results for Dutch Golden Age masterworks. The 2 guilders 30 cents to €200–400 million appreciation is the most extreme documented value increase for a single painting purchase in Western art market history.

Lapis Lazuli: The Most Expensive Pigment in the World

The blue element of the girl’s turban is rendered in natural ultramarine — the pigment ground from lapis lazuli (lazurite, a mineral from the Kokcha River valley in Badakhshan, Afghanistan). In the 17th century, natural ultramarine was the most expensive artist’s pigment in the world, valued by weight at the same price as gold. It was used sparingly by most painters and reserved for the most important chromatic elements of a composition (the Virgin’s robe in religious painting, for example). Vermeer used it consistently throughout his mature work — more generously than most of his contemporaries — which is part of the reason for his significant debts: he was spending more on materials than he was earning from paintings.

The specific colour of the turban in the Pearl Earring is a specific warm blue — approximately 435–445 nm, slightly warmer (less violet) than the cooler Prussian blue of Hokusai’s Great Wave (~495 nm). The warmth of the lapis lazuli blue corresponds to the warm palette of the face (warm ivory flesh tone, warm amber-brown of the collar’s edge) in a way that a cooler blue would not. Under 2700K warm LED, the lapis blue reads at its specific warm-blue optical quality; under cool LED at 4000K+, the blue shifts slightly toward a cooler less-warm register.

The lapis lazuli turban is the Pearl Earring’s primary chromatic event — the one saturated colour element in a composition that is otherwise dominated by warm near-black, warm ivory flesh, and the specific white-gold of the earring. In a Japandi or Scandinavian room, the turban’s warm lapis blue functions as the single cool accent in a warm-neutral palette — the Pearl Earring as the room’s one cool chromatic event in the warm white or warm charcoal room.

The Earring Problem: Pearl, Glass, or Tin?

The earring in the painting is not confirmed to be a pearl. Technical analysis of the Pearl Earring — including the comprehensive 2018 conservation study by the Mauritshuis (Mauritshuis collection page) — identified the earring as likely a glass or polished tin ornament rather than an actual pearl. Genuine pearls in the 17th century had a specific nacreous lustre (the layered iridescence of the nacre) that is not clearly visible in the painting; the earring’s rendering is a simple highlight on a near-white teardrop form rather than the multilayer iridescence of actual pearl.

Proposed materials: glass (a polished glass bead, which would have been inexpensive and widely available to a non-wealthy Dutch woman), polished tin (which had a similar lustre to glass), or actual pearl (which would have been relatively expensive and therefore a significant ornament for the figure’s apparent social status). The 2018 Mauritshuis technical analysis did not definitively resolve the question; the consensus is that the earring is “not certainly a pearl” rather than “certainly not a pearl.”

The earring uncertainty is one of the painting’s most discussed details in popular commentary. Tracy Chevalier’s 2000 novel Girl with a Pearl Earring (adapted into a 2003 film with Scarlett Johansson) used the earring’s mystery as the central narrative device. The novel is fiction; it has no art historical basis but has significantly amplified the painting’s popular cultural profile.

The Mauritshuis: The Hague Since 1902

The Mauritshuis is a Dutch national art museum in The Hague, housed in a 17th-century palace originally built for Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, Governor-General of Dutch Brazil. It was converted into a museum in 1822 and holds one of the most concentrated collections of Dutch and Flemish Golden Age masterworks in the world, including Vermeer’s View of Delft and Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp in addition to the Pearl Earring.

The Pearl Earring is the Mauritshuis’s most visited work and the museum’s primary international draw. The museum underwent a major renovation and expansion (2012–2014) during which the Pearl Earring toured internationally, visiting museums in Japan, Italy, and the United States before returning to The Hague. The Mauritshuis’s official collection page for the Pearl Earring includes high-resolution photography and the results of the 2018 technical analysis.

Pearl Earring on a Skateboard Deck: Intimate at Close Range

The Pearl Earring is the most close-range-dependent work in the DeckArts range: its specific visual properties — the wet lips, the specific light reflections in both eyes, the lapis blue turban’s warm-cool optical quality, the earring’s uncertain material lustre — are most accessible at the 50–80 cm viewing distance that a hallway, washbasin, or bedside installation creates. At 2–3 metres across a living room, the Pearl Earring reads as a warm figurative face against a dark ground; at 50–80 cm, it becomes a specific and detailed encounter with Vermeer’s technical virtuosity.

The specific details visible at close range: two small points of warm light in both eyes (the window light reflected precisely); the translucency of the skin at the cheekbone and temple (achieved by Vermeer through multiple thin glaze layers over a cool underpaint); the slightly parted lips’ specific paint texture (which reads as surface moisture at close range); the turban’s specific warm-blue lapis lazuli quality (which shifts subtly in register between 2700K warm and 4000K cool light). At the distance of a washbasin mirror or a bedside reading lamp, these details become the primary experience of the work.

The DeckArts single deck crop (85 cm tall, 20 cm wide) concentrates on the face, the turban, and the earring — the painting’s entire significant content, since the dark ground and the white collar are compositional context rather than content. The narrow vertical format suits the single-face subject without requiring any compositional sacrifice.

Room-by-Room Installation Guide

Bathroom beside the washbasin (most intimate position): Single deck (~$140) on warm white tile or pale grey tile, at 155–165 cm centre height, beside or facing the washbasin mirror. At 50–80 cm viewing distance while washing, the Pearl Earring’s close-range properties are fully accessible. The turning-to-look-back pose creates a conversational quality at washbasin distance: a face at face level, looking at you, about to speak. DeckArts maple deck is bathroom-suitable (7-ply laminate, UV archival water-vapour resistant). See full bathroom guide: Skateboard Wall Art for a Bathroom.

Hallway end wall (bilateral threshold resonance): Single deck (~$140) on warm white or warm charcoal at the end wall facing the front door. The turning-to-look-back pose has bilateral threshold resonance: leaving the house, the Pearl Earring’s figure appears to look back as you go; returning, she faces you as you come in. The threshold guardian that converses rather than confronts. Centre at 155–165 cm. See: Skateboard Wall Art for a Hallway.

Bedroom beside the bed (close-range intimate): Single deck (~$140) on the adjacent wall at bedside height (115–135 cm centre from floor). At 50–80 cm from a reclining position, the Pearl Earring’s specific facial detail — the warm light in the eyes, the parted lips, the turban’s warm lapis blue — creates the most intimate figurative encounter in the DeckArts range. See: Skateboard Wall Art for a Bedroom.

Japandi or Scandinavian living room (one-accent cool event): Single deck (~$140) on warm white above a console table or as an accent on the secondary wall. The lapis lazuli turban’s warm-blue is the room’s single cool chromatic event against warm white. The quiet anonymous face creates a figurative presence without narrative dominance. See: Skateboard Wall Art for Japandi Interiors.

Vermeer — Girl with a Pearl Earring (~$140)

Warm white · hallway · bathroom · bedside · Japandi · UV archival 100+ years · Canadian maple · ships Berlin

View product →

FAQ

Who is the girl in Vermeer’s Pearl Earring?

The subject is unidentified and was almost certainly never intended to be identified: the painting is a tronie (a character study of an anonymous figure’s expressive qualities) rather than a commissioned portrait. Proposed identifications include Vermeer’s daughter Maria (possible but unconfirmed) and a patron’s daughter (equally unconfirmed). Tracy Chevalier’s 2000 novel invented the fictional maid Griet — this is literary fiction without art historical basis. The anonymity is the painting’s interpretive design: the turned-back universal surrogate invites projection. Mauritshuis The Hague. DeckArts from ~$140.

Where is the Girl with a Pearl Earring?

The Girl with a Pearl Earring (c.1665, 44.5×39 cm) is in the permanent collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands, where it has been since 1902 (bequeathed by Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, who purchased it at auction for 2 guilders 30 cents in 1902). The Mauritshuis is open to the public; see mauritshuis.nl for current opening hours and tickets. DeckArts from ~$140.

Is the earring in the Pearl Earring actually a pearl?

Not confirmed. The 2018 Mauritshuis technical analysis concluded the earring is “not certainly a pearl” — it may be glass, polished tin, or actual pearl. The rendering shows a simple highlight on a near-white teardrop form rather than the multilayer nacreous iridescence of actual pearl. The earring’s material remains unresolved after 350 years of speculation and technical analysis. This unresolved uncertainty is one of the painting’s most distinctive properties. DeckArts from ~$140. Mauritshuis collection page.

Related Guides

• Skateboard Wall Art for a Bathroom: The Only Format That Handles Humidity
• Skateboard Wall Art for a Hallway: The Threshold Concept
• Skateboard Wall Art for a Bedroom: Where to Hang It, What Size
• Skateboard Wall Art for Japandi Interiors
• LED Lighting for Classical Wall Art: Why 2700K Is Mandatory

Article Summary

Vermeer Pearl Earring: c.1665, 44.5×39 cm, Mauritshuis The Hague (since 1902, purchased 1902 for 2 guilders 30 cents at auction by des Tombe, bequeathed 1903). Tronie not portrait: anonymous character type, not commissioned portrait; no confirmed identity (Chevalier’s Griet is fiction). Composition: absolute near-black ground, turning-to-look-back pose, slightly parted lips, white collar, blue-yellow turban, earring. Vermeer biography: born Delft 1632, died 1675 aged 43 in debt; 46 surviving works; 11 children (4 died); art dealer; 617 guilder bread debt to baker van Buyten settled in paintings. 2 guilders 30 cents: cheapest confirmed auction price for now-major-museum painting; estimated current value €200–400 million. Lapis lazuli turban: natural ultramarine ground from Badakhshan Afghanistan; most expensive pigment in 17th century, gold-equivalent by weight; warm blue ~435–445 nm; Japandi single cool event in warm palette. Earring problem: 2018 Mauritshuis technical analysis — “not certainly a pearl”; may be glass, tin, or actual pearl; unresolved. On deck: most close-range-dependent work at DeckArts; visible details at 50–80 cm (light in both eyes, skin translucency, parted lips moisture, lapis warm-cool shift). Installation: bathroom beside washbasin (50–80 cm, most intimate); hallway end wall (bilateral threshold — leaving and arriving); bedroom beside bed (115–135 cm, reclining close-range); Japandi living room (lapis warm-blue as single cool event on warm white). DeckArts from ~$140. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. Berlin. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director from Ukraine based in Berlin.