WOMAN WITH A PEARL NECKLACE
(Vrouw met parelsnoer)
c.1664
oil on canvas
21 5/8 x 17 3/4 in. (55 x 45 cm.)
Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
"Out of the iconography of Vanity Vermeer has fashioned an image of great purity and innocence, and he tenderly cherishes it as such. The moment of happiness of the painting is characterized by an almost complete absence of ego. The woman appears not so much to be admiring the pearls in the mirror as selflessly, even reverently, offering them up to the light: it is as if we were present at a marriage."
Edward A. Snow, A Study of Vermeer, 1979
