In the book, Girl with a Pearl Earring written by Tracy Chevalier, art plays a big role, because throughout the book both of the main characters help each other through their artistic abilities. Throughout the book, Griet’s master, Johannes Vermeer, learns a lot of new information from his maid, which helps him improve his paintings for the better. One day, Johannes Vermeer was painting a picture of his patron’s wife, and as Griet was doing her duties in the studio, she found one change that she would like to do in the painting. She waited for her master, to make the change in the picture, but he didn’t, so Griet “decided she would have to make change herself” (Chevalier 133). Griet thought that if she made the change it would make the picture more interesting and better.
Against all of their struggles of having this secretive relationship both Vermeer and Griet were able to increase their knowledge and love of painting and produce a beautiful, simplistic yet powerful painting of Griet as the girl with a pearl earring. Griet worked for a family whose way of life was quite different from that of her own. She had to adapt to, and stay strong in a very chaotic atmosphere that stemmed from Vermeer and his wife right down to the other maids. Besides that she had to deal with the sexual advances from one Vermeer’s clients, Van Ruijven, who was the reason behind the painting of a girl with a pearl earring and who also seemed to trouble anything with a pulse. With all of that going on she still tried to keep her budding romance with the butcher’s son alive.
Gradually, Griet’s intelligent sensation and talent for Art are expressed through the way she dedicates herself in the studio, and that is the start of her wonderful yet tragic love with the master, Johannes Vermeer. Recognizing Griet's talents, Vermeer takes her on as his studio assistant and teaches her to grind paints and develop color palettes in the attic. Though reluctant to overstep her secretive love for Vermeer, Griet is delighted to work with her intriguingly brilliant master as well as to express her natural inclinations—colors and composition—either of which has always been suppressed by her mother. Together, Vermeer and Griet find the other to be their true love while their two artistic souls harmoniously blend into each other. However, as the two lovers have become almost inseparable, the prejudices and responsibilities abruptly
In this essay I am going to examine two paintings by the same artist JD Ferguson; 'The Pink Parasol' and the ‘Hat with Bird'. The theme of these paintings is women and the women that I have chosen seem to be elegant due to their posture and clothing. In this essay I will discuss the visual elements most predominate in these paintings which, in my opinion, are colour, tone and texture, I will also compare and contrast the images and choose my favourite of the two paintings. JD Ferguson was the first of four children and attended the Royal High School. Although he briefly trained as a Naval Surgeon, Ferguson soon realised that his ambition was painting and he spent some time travelling in Spain, Morocco and France to develop his artistic knowledge and experience.
The way in which one responds to a novel reflects the author’s ability to engage with the responder. Tracy Chevalier successfully achieves this by exploring the historical Dutch baroque period, illustrating a unique perspective of personal growth through the eyes of the protagonist Griet. Her speculative novel represents a coming of age process by adopting the bildungsroman genre. Griet’s strong individualism strengthens as the events in the novel A Girl in a Pearl Earing progresses. Chevalier has captured a historical artist’s pursuit for perfection through a mysterious manipulative character, Vermeer.
Firstly, amateur talents in drawing and watercolour were encouraged as part of a good bourgeois education in the upper-class milieu. For instance, Berth Morisot and her sister Edma, both French painters, were encouraged at an early age to porsue art studying with two private art instructors Geoffry-Alphonse Chocarne and later with Joseph Guichard. Secondly, other women turned for education to the studios of established artists or to private academies often at great expense. Courses were based on the mastery of human anatomy through the study of the live nude model. Lastly, many women turned to portraiture, genre painting, landscape and still life.
I have had the pleasure of studying under great painters such as Louis Lamothe, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. I have also been influenced by the Japanese culture as well as photography (Biography.com).” [Degas] What was your reasoning for painting the same subjects over and over? “It has never occurred to [anyone] that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes (Trachtman). I was excited by the realism and classic beauty
The painting I found on “The Metropolitan Museum of Art” named “Madame Georges Charpentier (née Marguérite-Louise Lemonnier, 1848–1904) and Her Children, Georgette-Berthe (1872–1945) and Paul-Émile-Charles (1875–1895)” (Met museum 2012) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He was a famous French artist and also he was the leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. (Artble2012). This painting is the most representative for his impressionist style. I choose this painting because when the first time I saw this painting I was feel so warm and peace, also from this painting I seems to vision my mother and let me feel at home.
This knowledge allows the author to effectively create dramatic irony. When Dee finds the quilts in the trunk and rubs her hands over the fabric we as readers can connect with Dee in the sense that she is educated and her perceived value of the quilt is different than that of her mother and sister, yet we can still honor Mama’s emotions those of protecting Maggie from her sisters’ callousness. Mama is naïve to the world outside of the rural south; Dee on the other hand is in living it. Mama does not understand where Dee's perceived values are coming from so the educated insight into Dee's
It is my opinion the writer used this element well, as it grabbed my attention and made it a fun and interesting reading. It also built that small mystery regarding if she was speaking the truth or not, as midpoint thru the reading it made me question her gender preference which I found humorous. In Brady, J. (1971) “I Want a Wife,” she used the final statement “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” in order to draw a conclusion to the reader that she was making a statement based on experiences. The way I Plan on using the literary elements in my essay would be by using Tone and Language expression that will help the reader paint a mental picture of a current situation within my essay.