‘Girl with the pearl earring’ is one of the most popular paintings of the dutch master Johannes Vermeer 1665-1667. It is currently visible in Museum Mauritshuis in the Hague. The painting is not a portrait, but a ‘tronie’ – a painting of an imaginary figure. Tronies depict a certain type or character; in this case a girl in exotic dress, wearing an oriental turban and an improbably large pearl in her ear. Johannes Vermeer was the master of light. This is shown here in the softness of the girl’s face and the glimmers of light on her moist lips. And of course, the shining pearl.