Yes, I know, I forgot to make a post yesterday. But in my defense, my sister came over with her two little munchkins, and it's impossible to get anywork done with cute babies around to play with. Here's hoping my niece Everly didn't pass the flu back to me again.
But continuing with my Classical Reinterpretation series, next I'll talk about one of my favourite works of art, the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer.
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Painter who lived through the Dutch Golden Age, a movement in art history characterized by intense realism, the protrayal of everyday life, and a lack of religious iconography that made up the bulk of work from previous movements. While the Dutch Golden Age produced numerous painters, Vermeer is by far the most famous thanks to his iconic painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Painted in 1665, the work itself is a simple one of a girl dressed in a headscarf with a large pearl earring. Very little is known about the concept behind the painting, the identity girl remains unknown, but her intimate glance had caught the attention of viewers the world over.
The work is oil on canvas and the composition displays what's known as a tronie, an image of a character's head that is not meant to be a portrait, and is a device used by many artists during this time period.
Today, the painting is on display at The Mauritshuis in The Hauge, Netherlands.
And here is my interpretation of the painting:
Christine, my model for this image, is one of my sisters, the elder of the two (and the sister with the cute nieces). You'll probably see her pop up a lot in my work, both her and my youngest sister, Victoria, are excellent models, the best models I've worked with. They put up with a lot from me, and are always good sports about getting dressed up and having a camera in their face.
Despite my sister's awesome modelling skills, this one is one of my least favourite images from my series. While I really love the lighting and Christine's expression, it's just the costume that puts me off. I made a lot of different attempts at creating the headdress, and making a large pearl earring, but failed miserably every time. I ended up wrapping a scarf around her head and tossing some other material out of the top of it. In the end I think the costume could have been a lot better, but, you win some, you loose some.
Otherwise, the image was a pretty simple one. I think the lightning did a good job of mirroring the original mood. I didn't have to edit it too much, there wasn't really any composite work for this one. It was just a matter of fixing up the spots and the colours, and giving it that oil-painting look.
Tomorrow, I'll be talking about La Grande Odalisque.
If you're interested in seeing the other photos in this series, you can find them here.
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And, you can check out my debut novel, The Children of Gods and Monsters, in the Amazon store here.