Vermeer is known as an outstanding master of genre painting, but in his creative heritage there are also paintings created in other genres. Among the master’s masterpieces, no doubt, four portraits of young women should be listed. All of them date back to the mid 1660s, all of them are belt-shaped, and the heads of women are rotated as if the artist had just called them.
An example is the “Head of a Girl”. And the most famous portrait from this series is the work “A Girl with a Pearl”, which is not without grounds called “Northern Mona Lisa”. The girl’s head, shown half-way to the viewer, is written on a simple dark background. The face of the heroine is remembered at first sight. It seems luminous.
To achieve this effect, the master had to impose bodily tones with the finest, most transparent layers. The girl does not smile, but as if she is about to smile. And in this “half-heartedness” lies the main charm of the portrait.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)