Inspired By Art

I’ve always been intrigued by Johannes Vermeers’s painting ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’. If it had been a photo entered in competition it would be criticised for the eyes being ‘over rotated in the ocular cavity’, (Judges love that phrase, it means that her eyes are too far in the corner of the eye socket because her body isn’t swivelled around towards the viewer sufficiently).

I suspect that it would also be criticised for poor framing. Her head is too central in the frame, we could lose some of the black area above her head. That would bring her eyes further up the frame and more on to a third. But, Hey! What do I know? Johannes is one of the ‘old masters’, I’m….errr.. not.

I thought I’d have a go at a homage to this painting. I didn’t want to duplicate exactly it because all I’d end up with is a copy of something that has been done before. Here are two versions, one faithful to the original in terms of the with the problem with the eyes. The second version, with more conventional photographic posing, is the one that I prefer as a better portrait. I feel that Vermeers girl looks as if she has just been called and is turning round and has kind of been caught on the hop.