{"id":77842,"date":"2025-10-16T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T06:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/77842\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T06:39:11","slug":"identity-of-girl-with-a-pearl-earring-uncovered-art-expert-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/77842\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity Of ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ Uncovered, Art Expert Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

British art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon believes that he has identified the famous subject of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s 17th-century masterwork, Girl with a Pearl Earring \u2014 and it’s not who most scholars thought.\"Girl<\/p>\n

Johannes VermeerThe mystery surrounding the identity of the famous subject in Johannes Vermeer\u2019s Girl with a Pearl Earring has persisted for centuries.<\/p>\n

An art historian believes he has finally identified the mysterious subject in Johannes Vermeer\u2019s iconic painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.<\/p>\n

The painting, created in approximately 1665, has long been the subject of speculation and debate, particularly in terms of who the \u201cGirl with a Pearl Earring\u201d really was.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often been suggested that she was Vermeer\u2019s daughter or perhaps his servant. But now, art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon believes he has discovered the girl\u2019s true identity, claiming that she was likely the daughter of Vermeer\u2019s patrons, Pieter Claesz van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt.<\/p>\n

Why The \u201cGirl With A Pearl Earring\u201d May Be The Daughter Of Johannes Vermeer\u2019s Patrons
\n\"Home<\/p>\n

Johannes VermeerThe home of Vermeer\u2019s patrons, Pieter Claesz van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt, as painted by the artist himself.<\/p>\n

In a new article published in The Sunday Times<\/a>, art historian and Vermeer expert Andrew Graham-Dixon argues against the popular theories that the girl in the famous portrait was the artist\u2019s eldest daughter, Maria, or one of his servants. Instead, Graham-Dixon took his cues from the fact that Vermeer created the painting for his patrons, Pieter Claesz van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt.<\/p>\n

The girl in the painting is about 12 years old, and while Vermeer\u2019s eldest daughter was born in 1654, and thus would have been roughly the right age to be the model, Graham-Dixon thinks it\u2019s unlikely that he would paint his own daughter in a piece meant for a different couple. Instead, Graham-Dixon hypothesizes that the girl had to be someone important to van Ruijven and de Knuijt.<\/p>\n

So, according to Graham-Dixon, \u201cThere is only one plausible candidate: their daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magdalena was born in 1655, making her about 12 at the time the painting was being created. Meanwhile, her parents were very religious and belonged to an evangelical Christian group known as the Remonstrants. And at 12 years old, Magdalena may have reached the age of baptism and made her commitment to the church, making the painting a way to mark that rite of passage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could have been done either before or after the baptism itself so was probably completed sometime in 1667 or 1668,\u201d Graham-Dixon explained.<\/p>\n

The Meaning Behind Girl With A Pearl Earring
\n\"Girl<\/p>\n

Wikimedia CommonsThe identity of the \u201cGirl with a Pearl Earring\u201d has long been a subject of debate and fascination among art lovers.<\/p>\n

Graham-Dixon argues that the primary symbolism in Girl with a Pearl Earring is Biblical. What\u2019s more, he believes that there is only one Biblical figure that Magdalena van Ruijven was meant to represent: Mary Magdalene<\/a>. First and foremost, Magdalena was named after Mary Magdalene, a woman who was revered by the Remonstrants.<\/p>\n

In fact, this wasn\u2019t the only time that Vermeer took inspiration from the story of Mary Magdalene in his work for Magdalena\u2019s parents. In one of the first pieces commissioned by her parents, A Maid Asleep, he also drew inspiration from Mary Magdalene\u2019s story, according to Graham-Dixon.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Graham-Dixon believes that this also explains the enigmatic expression on the face of the \u201cGirl with a Pearl Earring.\u201d Vermeer was likely depicting the moment in the Bible when Mary Magdalene enters the tomb of Jesus and turns to see his resurrected form, at first not understanding what she\u2019s seeing before quickly realizing the truth.<\/p>\n

Is Magdalena Van Ruijven Actually The Girl In Vermeer\u2019s Famous Painting?<\/p>\n

However, not everyone is subscribing to Graham-Dixon\u2019s theory. Ruth Millington, author of Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History\u2019s Masterpieces, told The Daily Mail<\/a> that the portrait doesn\u2019t depict a single, real-life person, and that art isn\u2019t always biographical.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt historians love to claim new discoveries but this theory has been around for quite some time, as I discovered while writing Muse,\u201d Millington said. \u201cExperts such as Dr. Judith Noorman have previously argued that the daughter of Vermeer\u2019s patron was the real Girl with a Pearl Earring. Artists like to keep us guessing, that\u2019s what keeps us coming back to look at Girl with a Pearl Earring.\u201d<\/p>\n

After reading about the new theory behind the identity of the \u201cGirl with a Pearl Earring,\u201d learn about the Renaissance painting that sold for $22 million<\/a>. Then, read about the rare Van Dyke painting that was found in a shed<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon believes that he has identified the famous subject of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-77842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}