Like many art lovers, I am a sucker for Vermeer’s wonderful paintings. And, of course, I am fascinated by the mysterious “Girl with the Pearl Earring.” Whenever I am in the Netherlands, I make time to visit the underappreciated Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague.  I recently stumbled upon the museum’s post on its website exploring the results of an in depth study of that girl.

Was the Girl a complete mystery? No, certainly not. The painting had already been examined in 1994. But over the last 25 years, the technical possibilities have improved significantly, so now we can investigate more deeply than in the previous century. Because this painting appeals so much to the imagination, there were questions we still wanted to answer.

How did Vermeer create this wonderful painting? What lies beneath the visible composition? What kind of pigments did he use? Where did they come from? How has the painting changed since it left Vermeer’s studio?

“One of the most surprising findings was that the background is not simply an empty dark space; Vermeer painted the Girl in front of a green curtain. Imaging techniques visualised diagonal lines and colour variations that suggest folded fabric in the upper right-hand corner of the painting. The curtain has disappeared over the course of the centuries as a result of physical and chemical changes in the translucent green paint.”