Whose painting is Girl with a Pearl Earring?

Vermeer worked in Delft during the Dutch Golden Age and is known for his masterly use of light. The painting is a tronie, a Dutch study of a face or character, rather than a portrait of a known person, and the sitter’s identity remains a mystery. It measures only about 44.5 by 39 centimetres and hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. In 1881 it was bought at auction for just two guilders plus a small fee. Often called the Mona Lisa of the North, it inspired Tracy Chevalier’s 1999 novel and the 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson.