Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer Paper Plate

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, 1665, is an oil on canvas painting of a young girl in three-quarter profile view gently turning her head and looking warmly at the viewer. The headpiece scarf wrapping and hanging from the subject's head is rendered in sunny, contrasting tones of warm yellows and cool blues, here an ultramarine tint or cornflower blue, a colour scheme explored in many of the Dutch master’s compositions. Her pearl earring glistens softly in white highlight at the centre of the composition. The girl's enigmatic expression is timelessly frozen in anticipation of a smile, laughter, or asking a question of the viewer.