The Mauritshuis in The Hague is an intimate museum with one of the finest collections of Dutch Golden Age painting. Its most beloved work is Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, often called the Mona Lisa of the North.
In Proust, the writer Bergotte dies in front of this painting, staring at “a little patch of yellow wall.” The trouble is that nobody knows which patch he meant. Scholars have proposed a roof, a stretch of masonry by the gate, a band of sand. Some argue that no such wall exists on the canvas…
She’s turning toward you — but she never quite arrives. The Girl with a Pearl Earring has captivated viewers for over three and a half centuries, yet Vermeer never signed it with a title, never told us her name, and may never have intended her to be a portrait at all. Quick Facts Artist: Johannes…