Who painted 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'?

Who painted “Girl with a Pearl Earring”? Johannes Vermeer painted it.

Vermeer created the painting around 1665 in Delft during the Dutch Golden Age. It is an oil painting on canvas and is usually classified as a tronie, a study of a head or character rather than a formal portrait of an identified person. The girl’s identity is unknown, despite later speculation that she may have been connected to Vermeer’s household or patrons.

The image is famous for its quiet expression, dark background, blue-and-yellow head covering, and dramatic highlight on the oversized earring. The painting is relatively small—about 44.5 by 39 centimetres—but its direct gaze gives it unusual intensity. Its current title became established only in the late twentieth century.

The work belongs to the Dutch Golden Age, not the Spanish or Italian Baroque traditions represented by artists such as Velázquez or Rubens. It has been housed at the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902 and is often nicknamed the “Mona Lisa of the North.”