Johannes Vermeer, Dutch
Girl With a Pearl Earring…AND a Pearl Necklace (She’s Getting Really Good at Shoplifting), 1663-65
Oil on canvas
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/// “I’ve been painted three times by Vermeer,
in the same yellow jacket seen here.
In the mirror I stare
at the necklace I wear.
I should keep it, as a souvenir.”
/// “I was told at each modeling session
to maintain a blank, cryptic expression.
These same earrings of pearl
graced that more famous girl
whose seductive pose triggers obsession.”
/// “She is famed for her colorful style
and that lips-parted, come-hither smile
displayed over her shoulder.
The men wish she were bolder,
and exposing more skin to beguile.”
/// “Her shy loveliness has them enthralled,
though they don’t know what name she was called.
She has flirtatious youth
but, to tell you the truth,
she may, under that turban, be bald.”
/// “As for me, I don’t feel any shame
for the wish that you all knew my name.
If my pose was less tame
I could set men aflame
with my frame and earn more than her fame.”
/// She was not someone known to wear lots
of rich furs, snowy white with black dots.
Vermeer saw the girl preening
and he stopped her from cleaning
the fur coat with removers of spots.