Technical Description

Woman with a Pearl Necklace

The support is a fine, plain-weave, linen with a thread count of 21.6 x 15 per cm² The original tacking edges are still present. The top tacking edge is wider than the others and appears to have been folded double. Marks from the original strainer bars are evident along the top and right edges. The support has been lined and placed on a stretcher larger than the original strainer.

Over an off-white ground, black underpainting indicates shadows in the woman's back. An ocher layer top of the ground may cover the entire painting. It is not covered by any other paint layers in parts of the figure and in the stained glass window The woman's yellow jacket underpainted with white, followed by lead tin in the light parts and two layers of a black and yellow ocher mixture in the shadows. In the flesh colors are various mixtures of white, ocher, and black, well blended into one another. The pearl necklace was painted wet-in-wet white over a gray/ocher layer.

* Johannes Vermeer (exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis - Washington and the Hague, 1995, edited by Arthur Wheelock)

signature:

inscribed on tabletop: (IVM in ligature)