{"id":76913,"date":"2025-10-14T02:32:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/76913\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T02:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:32:13","slug":"360-year-long-mystery-solved-as-identity-of-girl-with-a-pearl-earring-muse-revealed-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/76913\/","title":{"rendered":"360-year-long mystery solved as identity of Girl with a Pearl Earring muse revealed | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mysterious girl with a pearl earring from Johannes Vermeer’s<\/a> famous painting was likely the daughter of the painter’s commissioner, a historian<\/a> has revealed. The 17th-century Dutch painter Vermeer worked almost exclusively for Pieter van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt, a Dutch husband and wife in Delft. This has been revealed by Andrew Graham-Dixon, the art historian and TV presenter, claiming the girl wearing the pearl earring in the renowned oil painting is likely the couple’s daughter, Magdalene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The wealthy family were members of a rebellious religious sect known as the Remonstrants, while the wife belonged to the Collegiants, an even more radical group. The evangelical Christians<\/a> were a prohibited organisation who held Quaker-like beliefs, such as pacifism and the pursuit of an egalitarian society. They were also advocates of feminism and the absolute equality of men and women. According to a new book on Vermeer by\u00a0Graham-Dixon,\u00a0Maria was the painter’s principal commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Graham-Dixon wrote for the Sunday Times Culture<\/a> magazine: “Research into Vermeer’s family background shows that he was born and brought up a Remonstrant, and that he too participated in the gatherings of the Collegiants.<\/p>\n

“The same is true of his mother and father, sister and brother-in-law, indeed of almost everyone in his immediate circle.<\/p>\n

“His wife was a Catholic<\/a>, but she too must have been in sympathy with the Remonstrants, or she could not have married a man so committed to their cause.<\/p>\n

“Every single one of his paintings was inspired by the religious beliefs cherished by Marie de Knuijt and those close to her, who included Vermeer himself.”<\/p>\n

This, according to Mr Graham-Dixon, helps understand why almost most of the people in his work are female.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The portrait allegedly reflects Magdalene’s commitment to her faith as a Collegiant.<\/p>\n

The historian<\/a> acknowledges that his conclusions run counter to most modern preconceptions about Vermeer’s work, yet he remains convinced of his theory and believes that others will find his discoveries reassuring.<\/p>\n

Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted around 1665 and is one of Vermeer’s most celebrated works. Many other scholars believe she may have been Vermeer’s eldest daughter, Maria, or simply an imagined “tronie” – a study of a character type rather than a portrait of a real person. The work’s simplicity, intimacy, and the girl’s enigmatic gaze have earned it the nickname the “Mona Lisa of the North.”<\/p>\n

You can see the painting at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, a city in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mysterious girl with a pearl earring from Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting was likely the daughter of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,19208,59989,11266,59990,8764,111,139,69,8457,59991],"class_list":["post-76913","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-girl-with-a-pearl-earring","tag-history-section","tag-johannes-vermeer","tag-magdalene-van-ruijven","tag-netherlands","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paint","tag-remonstrants-and-collegiants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}