Girl With A Pearl Earring

This is it.

The reason why I was not overly awestruck by the Monalisa was because long before I came to the hallowed hallway in the Louvre where she was ensconced, she was already, for me, larger than life. I had this picture of her in my mind and an expectation so high it far exceeded what I saw in reality. No, I wasn't disappointed, how could I be? I just wished that I was left, to my own devices, to discover her beauty, indeed, her mystery, which becomes so much less when the whole world had seen it long before I have.

And then, this one, the Girl With a Pearl Earring, with white luminous skin, lush, hungry lips, those amazing eyes that are sad, shy, languid and pained, and pregnant with longings she was hardly able to conceal, she must have had a very special bonding with the one who painted her. Who knows what Johannes Vermeer was thinking back then. Whatever it was, it must have been that urgent and powerful to produce such a painfully beautiful picture such as this.

I have long admired the Girl With a Pearl Earring, and again, she came alive to me this weekend. I saw the movie, which gave a story behind the painting, and it was every bit like I imagined it to be.

I know not much about art, I wish i did. Then again I know enough to discern that the world is so much more bearable because of it, like these women will never know. One day I'll walk in to The Mauritshuis, The Hague, I'll make it my life's project, and meet her face to face, the Girl With a Pearl Earring. Should I then discover her secrets that lie within?

Filed Under: Favorite Things

Tags: Girl With A Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer, Louvre, Monalisa