Mystery behind the Girl with a Pearl Earring painting finally solved after 360 years

Girl with a Pearl Earring, an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, has been known by a lot of different names and was identified as different people over the ages. Once upon a time, it was said to be painter’s eldest daughter, a sibyl from Greek mythology and even a servant, as played by Scarlett Johansson in a 2004 drama. But most recently, a British historian is claiming to have identified the real person behind the mystery inspiration behind the painting.

A British historian identifies the potential inspiration behind the historic  Johannes Vermeer's oil painting called Girl with a Pearl Earring

Historian Andrew Graham-Dixon claims the sitter in Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is Magdalena van Ruijven, a daughter of Johannes' key patrons. His book Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found will be published later this month.

Magdalena was the 12-year old daughter of Maria de Knuijt and Pieter Claesz van Ruijven, who were Johannes' most important patrons, who commissioned his art.

“Considering that the picture was made for them, it is a fair assumption that the sitter was someone they knew and cared about,” the historian wrote to the media.

Andrew made this discovery after finding the location of the patrons’ former home, called the Golden Eagle, in Delft, the Dutch city where Johannes lived. The house was located on the Oude Delft canal, near the town center, and across from a Remonstrant church, which was a Protestant group known for trying to live according to the example of Christ’s apostles and female followers. For the family, biblical Mary Magdalene was an important figure, after whom their daughter was named.

The painting is a tronie, the Dutch 17th-century description of a "head" that was not meant to be a portrait. It depicts a European girl wearing "exotic dress", an "oriental turban", and what appears to be a very large pearl as an earring. But the lack of knowledge regarding her identity drew a lot of speculation from different people.

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