" The idea for this novel came easily". She was lying in bed one morning, worrying about what she was going to write next. (A common problem with writers.) A poster of the Vermeer painting "Girl With a Pearl Earring" hung in her bedroom, as it has done since she was about nineteen and first discovered the painting. She lay there focusing carefully on the girl's face and thought suddenly, "I could write about her." Within three days she somehow had the whole story worked out. It was effortless; she could see it all in the face. Vermeer had done all her work for her. .
" I have always loved Vermeer's paintings". One of Tracy's life goals is to view all thirty-five of them (Vermeer's paintings) in the flesh. She has seen all but one - Young Girl Reading a Letter, which hangs in Dresden. "There is so much mystery in each painting, in the women he depicts, so many stories suggested but not told. I wanted to tell one of them. ".
About Vermeer (the actual artist).
1632 Johannes Vermeer born in Delft, to Reynier Vermeer, a silk weaver, art dealer and owner of a small inn.
1641 Reynier Vermeer purchases the "Mechelen", a large inn on the market square in Delft.
Late in the 1640's Vermeer must have begun his apprenticeship since it took an aspiring artist six years of training before becoming a master.
1652 Vermeer's father dies and he almost certainly inherits the business.
1653 In Dec, Vermeer married Catherina Bolnes, daughter of Maria Thins and registered as a master painter in the St. Luke's Guild. .
1662 Vermeer elected headman of the Board of the St. Lukes Guild, a trade association of artists. .
1670 again elected headman of the Board of the St. Lukes Guild, a trade association of artists.
1672 Vermeer moved his family to Maria Thins' house on the Oude Langendijk when the art market collapsed after France invaded the Netherlands. Vermeer's fortune deteriorated very quickly.
1675 Vermeer died and left his wife and eleven children with enormous debts.