Study of a Young Woman

Often called a ‘tronie’—a character study rather than a commissioned portrait—this painting shows a young woman in an exotic blue and gold turban, her face lit by a soft light from the left. Vermeer’s delicate handling of the pearl earring and the sheen of the fabric anticipates the luminous intimacy of his later masterpieces.
The painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 1979.396.1), Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1979.