Girl with a Pearl Earring
View at the holding institution
- Artist
- Johannes Vermeer
- Date
- c. 1665
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 44.5 x 39 cm
- Inscriptions
- Signed upper left: IVMeer
- Attribution
- acceptedAccepted as autograph Vermeer. Signed upper left.
- Where it is now
- Mauritshuis, The Hague, inv. 670
The best-known tronie in European painting, and a useful demonstration of why a provenance record is not the same thing as a biography. The picture's documented ownership history is short and its early history is contested: nothing certain is known between its making in the 1660s and its appearance at auction in The Hague in 1881, when it was bought for a nominal sum by a collector who recognised it for what it was.
That gap of roughly two centuries is the point. A record of this kind exists to state precisely what is documented, what is inferred, and what is unknown, rather than to smooth the three into one narrative. The 1696 Amsterdam sale of pictures associated with Jacob Dissius included several unnamed tronies in antique dress, and this painting has often been identified with one of them; that identification remains an argument, not a fact, and is recorded here as such.
Provenance
- 1696 -Possibly the Dissius sale, Amsterdamdisputed
The 16 May 1696 Amsterdam auction of pictures associated with Jacob Dissius included unnamed tronies in antique dress. The identification of this painting with one of those lots is long-standing but not established.1
- - 1881Unknownunknown
No documented owner between the 1660s and 1881. This gap is unresolved.
- 1881 - 1902Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, The Haguedocumented
Bought at auction in The Hague in 1881 for a nominal sum. Des Tombe had the painting cleaned, revealing the signature.1
- 1903 - presentMauritshuis, The Haguedocumented
Bequeathed by des Tombe on his death; entered the collection in 1903 as inv. 670.1
Prices realised
| Date | Sale | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1881 | Auction, The Hague | nominal | A figure of about two guilders is widely cited. Reported figures vary slightly and none is recorded here as exact. |
Sources
- 1Mauritshuis, The Hague, collection entry for Girl with a Pearl Earring, inv. 670.
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/our-collection/artworks/670-girl-with-a-pearl-earring/
Change log
2026-08-02 — Record created. Early provenance recorded as disputed; 1660s-1881 gap left open rather than bridged. The 1881 price reduced to 'nominal' rather than asserting a figure that varies between accounts.