Works of art are created in order to charm, amaze, drag into thought. Canvases of great artists carried secrets and mystical mysteries through the centuries. One of them is the painting by Jan Vermeer “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. Shrouded in a halo of mystery, it became a source of inspiration for the American writer T. Chevalier, who told her readers the wonderful story of this portrait, which could have happened, or possibly happened, in the distant XVII century.
Who is Tracy Chevalier?
The writer T. Chevalier was born in October 1962 in Washington. Oberlin left for England after graduating from college. She worked as an editor for several years, in her free time she composed stories. In 1993, she graduated from the University of East Anglia. Then she stopped working in the office - she became a freelance editor and began writing her first novel, “Virgin in Blue” (1997). Lives with her husband and children in London.
That writes?
Tracy has her own office in the house, but she usually writes on the couch in the living room. He writes novels by hand, and at the end of the day he types in the computer what he wrote. Tracy is left-handed, prefers blue ink and disposable pens. She wrote 9 novels and 2 storybooks. Tracy Chevalier Books:
- “Fallen Angels” (2001);
- “Lady and the Unicorn” (2003);
- “A Tiger Light Burning” (2007);
- “Lovely Creations” (2009);
- “The Last Escape” (2012);
- At the Edge of the Orchard (2016).
Tracy Chevalier’s second novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, published in 1999, was sold in 5 million copies and brought the writer real success. We will dwell on it in more detail.
How was the novel born?
Vermeer and his picture have perplexed the world for centuries. As the biography of the artist himself remains a mystery, we will never know about the girl with pearls, who served as a model for a famous artist. Vermeer is recognized as a master of light, he specialized in portraits of women and interiors. Vermeer's paintings are partly appreciated also because they are filled with mystery.
Unlike Dutch contemporaries, who overwhelmed their compositions with details, Vermeer loved to tease the viewer and hide the meaning. For example, on one of his canvases, an elegant couple makes music - but we will never know if a gentleman is a mentor, groom or husband.
So the picture “Girl with a Pearl Earring” beckons with its secret. Who is she? Dressed in exotic clothes - a turban, he gives the canvas an oriental taste and carries the imagination to distant lands. Perhaps this is a figure from the Bible? Or did Vermeer's wife look like that? The pearl depicted in the picture is too large to be worn in reality. This halo of mystery attracts people to the picture.
How is it written?
“The picture works because it isn’t solved,” says Tracy Chevalier. “And you can never understand what a girl thinks, how she feels.” You move on to the next picture, but invariably return to the "Girl", trying to solve this mystery. " And Tracy tried to figure it out. Not as erotic and insidious as the “Lesson of Music” by C. Weber, not as original as the stories of S. Vreeland, but “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Chevalier succeeded.
The writer paints an amazing picture of the city of Delft of the 17th century, it is clearly delineated, social classes are clearly defined, poverty of workers and prejudices against Catholics among the Protestant majority are shown.
From the very beginning, the 16-year-old narrator Grieta shows herself as an observer who sees the world in sensual images expressed in accurate and bright prose. There are subtle shades of the coldly distant face of Vermeer, his morally unstable wife Katarina, and a friendly mother-in-law.
With equal skill, Tracy Chevalier describes the components of the painting: how colors are mixed with pharmaceutical materials. And the way composition is achieved: painstaking work and care. The author subtly observes class inequality as well, for example, when Vermeer, impressed by how Grieta understands color and composition, secretly makes her his assistant, and then demands that she put on Katarina's pearl earrings.
The episodes where Grieta advises Vermeer how to improve the picture require the imagination of the reader - this is something unthinkable. And at the end, the artist's confession of guilt in front of her is a blatant nod towards sentimentality. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating story with a historical background, and Chevalier talented and realistic told its reader.
What is he talking about?
The duration of the novel is 1664. The main character of Tracy Chevalier’s book is the girl Grieta, a modest daughter of a tile maker, forced to work as a servant in Vermeer's house because her father was blind. A young girl is drawn to the works of the artist, but she is faced with more prosaic everyday problems.
The house is full of women, and each of them can command Grieta, give her orders. Grieta has to not only work tirelessly, but be able to adapt to others and understand from a glance. But everything that Grieta built for a long time, patiently and carefully, will collapse in an instant, when an attraction appears between her and the master, a subtle, subtle attraction of people who can see and feel the beautiful.
Grieta is undoubtedly in love with the master with her first love, which tends to idealize the object of sighing. Vermeer, as a man of genius, is fixated solely on creativity, not wanting to be distracted by any everyday problems and even more so solve them. And Griete has to rush between the women of the Vermeer house, the concerns of the parent's hearth and the young butcher Peter, who was seriously carried away by the girl.
All this makes the beauty grow up quickly - to flatter, where necessary, learn to hide the truth, assess the situation and make independent decisions. The ending of the story is predictable, but it is very interesting to follow the path that will lead the girl to this endpoint. Several years of service in the Vermeer house changed her, helped create a family and start a new, completely different life. The picture painted by the artist is, as it were, the result of the passed stage for Grieta.
Is it worth reading?
The book “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Tracy Chevalier is a new version of the painting, completely unlike previous attempts to describe the life of the artist and his creation. The novel mentions many of the master’s works. The main character - decent, conscientious, causes only sympathy.
The book is written easily: all emotions and feelings are conveyed subtly and accurately. The narrative flows measuredly, but not at all boring. A slight understatement about the girl Griete tells more about her than the monologues of the heroine. The author succeeded, as an artist, smear after brushstroke to create the main character, gradually revealing to the reader her image, all the obvious and secret character traits. Tracy Chevalier, like her hero, mixed colors, invented the background, creating a story step by step, reading which you can have a pleasant evening.