Episode 21: 🇳🇱 First visit to Japan in 14 years! Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' | In that moment she turned around

She is looking at us.

But,
she is not staring.

The moment she turned around.
It is as if we called out to her,
yet no words are exchanged.

'Girl with a Pearl Earring'
Johannes Vermeer.

When you stand before this painting,
time slows down just a little.

The background is deep darkness.

Neither the location nor the story
is explained at all.

We do not know the girl's name,
her age,
or her status.

And yet,
you cannot look away.


Light shines in quietly from the left.

Her cheek.
Her lips.
And the pearl at her ear.

The pearl is not so much a jewel
as it is light itself.

It feels weightless,
simply existing there.

I believe Vermeer
did not paint the brilliance,

but rather 'the moment light touched it'.
What she is wearing


is not everyday clothing.
A blue and yellow turban.

Exotic and somewhat otherworldly.
This painting is not a portrait,

but what is known as a tronie (a study of expression).
It is not a specific person,

but a painting of 'a fleeting expression'.

Her lips are slightly parted.

Was she about to speak,
or did she
start to say something and then stop?

There is no answer.

But I believe this ambiguity
is the core of this painting.

Because it is not finished,
there is room for imagination to enter.



17th-century Netherlands.
Commerce and civic culture flourished,
and painting shifted from being for the church
to being 'something for individuals to enjoy'.

What Vermeer painted were
quiet rooms and quiet people.

And this girl, too,
does not raise her voice.

She simply
turns to look at us.



'Girl with a Pearl Earring'
gives no answers.
That is why I want to go see her again and again.

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It seems it can be seen at the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts from August 21st to September 27th this year. This is her first visit to Japan in 14 years.