What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer's painting?
I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous – sometimes she looks happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I wondered what Vermeer did to her to make her look like that. I began to understand that the painting is more than a picture of the girl, but also a portrait of the relationship between the painter and the model. I thought there must be a story behind her look, but when I found out that we don’t know who the model for the painting was, I realized I would have to make up the story myself. [return to questions]
Why did you make the girl a servant?
In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. At the same time, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. Some historians think she was his eldest daughter, but I don’t think that’s a look a daughter would give her father – it’s too seductive. So I thought, Who else would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant. [return to questions]
How much of the story is true? Did Griet really exist?
Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works. So I made up that she was his servant. But I tried to stay true to the facts that we do know about his life. Vermeer did grow up in Delft and lived there all his life. He was Protestant but married a Catholic woman, Catharina Bolnes, and probably converted. They had 11 children, and another 4 who died in infancy. They lived with his mother-in-law Maria Thins in the Catholic quarter of town. Though the house doesn’t exist any more, there is a list of its contents that was attached to his will, so we know what rooms were in the house, what furniture they had and what else they owned. They had a servant called Tanneke. Vermeer was an art dealer and there were paintings all over the walls. He was in debt quite a lot. It is likely that he painted very slowly. Antony van Leeuwenhoek, inventor of the microscope and much interested in lenses and other optical devices, including the camera obscura, was the executor of Vermeer’s will and very likely a friend.
Other than that, there is so much we don’t know that I had to fill in. Primarily we don’t know what he was like as a person. There are no letters to or from him, and few references to him in writings of the time. That is what I had to create: was he a nice man? Was he quiet or a talker? Did he prefer to be around men or women? Did he spend a lot of time at home or go out drinking every night? Was he a gossip or loyal to his friends? Which was more important to him: family or work? All these questions I had to answer myself.
In the end I based his character on what I saw as a contradiction in his life: he painted such quiet, calm paintings and yet he had 11 children! How could he have managed that, other than to feel ruthless about his paintings to the point of separating out his working life from his daily life. Hence he cut off his studio from his wife and family, and that caused the problems I wrote about. [return to questions]
How long did it take you to write it?
It took me eight months to research and write the book. That is very quick for me, but on the day I began research I discovered that I was pregnant, and I decided that I must finish the book before the baby came – I wasn’t sure if my brain would remain the same once I had a baby!
I also wanted the book to feel as if it were written in one sitting (so that you would want to read it in one sitting), and in order to do that I really needed to write the book in one chunk of time rather than divided up pre-baby and post-baby. So I had just eight months. It meant that I made some practical aesthetic decisions: it would be a short book, told from one person’s point of view, and the structure would be linear – I didn’t have the time to be experimental. In a way, though, those decisions also mirrored Vermeer’s aesthetic of simplicity and understatement, so it worked out very well. [return to questions]
How did you research the book?
I began by looking at a lot of paintings – not just Vermeer’s, but other Dutch artists’ paintings of the time as well. There was a fashion then for paintings of everyday life, and looking at them built up a kind of visual reference for me. Then I began to read – about Vermeer, about painting, about the history of the time. It helped that there had been a major Vermeer exhibition a few years back and a number of books about this sort of thing had just come out. Then of course I went to Delft, also to Amsterdam, to see for myself. Finally I wrote the book, going back to sources to answer questions along the way.[return to questions]
Do you paint, or have you ever modeled for a painting?
I took a painting class while I was researching the book. I was really terrible at it. I have never modeled for a painting but I did talk to a friend who is a portrait painter about the relationship that can develop between painter and model.[return to questions]
Do you have any training as an art historian?
Nope. I’m a novice, just like you. [return to questions]
How did you decide on names for your characters? How are they
pronounced?
Many of the names are of known people: Vermeer’s wife was called Catharina, her mother was Maria Thins, and the children’s names are all recorded, so I didn’t have to make any of those up. As for Griet herself, I wrote down female Dutch names I came across as I was doing research. One day I wrote down Griet and knew that was it: short, tidy, definite. It’s short for Margriet, and a year after the book was published I discovered that Margriet means “pearl” in Dutch. Amazing, eh?
Pronunciations:
In Dutch Griet is pronounced Ccccrrrrr- eet. You sort of clear your throat to say the “Gr”. Most non-Dutch people find that a difficult sound to reproduce and simply say “Greet”.
The others:
Catharina Cat-a-rina
Maria Thins Maria Tins
Maertge Mair-je
Aleydis Uh-lie-dis
Cornelia Cor-nay-lia
van Ruijven van Rrrrow-van
van Leeuwenhoek van Low-ee-van-hoke (very hard to pronounce unless you’re Dutch!)
Also:
Oude Langendijck Owde Long-en-daiyk [return to questions]
Why did you end it the way you did?
[Warning: details of the book are given away here. Only read this if you have already read the book.] Click here to read the answer. [return to questions]
Does Griet love Vermeer? Does Vermeer love Griet?
[Warning: details of the book are given away here. Only read this if you have already read the book.] Click here to read the answer. [return to questions]
Who is the father of Griet’s eldest son?
[Warning: details of the book are given away here. Only read this if you have already read the book.] Click here to read the answer. [return to questions]
Did you have an overall message you wished to convey through the book?
I am very wary of books with messages, and I think most people are. If they feel a message is being rammed down their throats they won’t read the book, and neither will I. [return to questions]
Why has the book been so successful?
I don’t know – sometimes I feel a fairy has come along and sprinkled magic dust on the book to make it successful.
I suppose it’s partly that the painting is already famous – many people are intrigued by it and want to discover the story behind it. Also, it really helps to have a visual cue for the book. Many people have said they bought the book for its cover, and as they read they kept turning to the cover and studying it more and more carefully.
People also like to feel they’re learning something by reading a book but not being lectured at. You learn a lot about art by reading the book but it’s not difficult to process or understand. People like that about it. I like to leave a lot of space in my books so that the reader will fill in the gaps. That makes people have things to say about my books, and they can become favorites among book groups, as this one has.
Also, it is a very quiet book, a small and simple book. You can give it to your great-aunt or your teenage daughter or your teacher for a gift and it won’t offend anybody. [return to questions]
Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?
There was first a major exhibition of Vermeer’s work in 1995-96 (in Washington and The Hague), the first ever, really. I think that did a lot to introduce the idea of Vermeer as a major artist to the world.
I think people like Vermeer because he reflects our everyday lives, yet makes them more beautiful and more ideal. He paints a whole world in a little corner of a room. The paintings are beautiful and simple and yet complicated too, with lingering depths and understated meanings. They are very calm paintings too, and you’re forced to slow down when you look at them. In this noisy, frenetic world, that tranquillity can be quite seductive. [return to questions]