Who wrote the 1999 novel that inspired the film 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'?

“Who wrote the 1999 novel that inspired the film ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’?” Tracy Chevalier wrote it.

Chevalier’s historical novel, also titled Girl with a Pearl Earring, was published in 1999. It imagines the story behind Johannes Vermeer’s painting by creating a fictional relationship between the painter and Griet, a young servant in his Delft household.

The novel was inspired by Chevalier’s long fascination with a reproduction of Vermeer’s painting. The girl’s ambiguous expression led her to imagine what might have happened before and during the scene depicted on the canvas. Although the book uses real historical settings and figures, Griet’s personal story is fictional, and the surviving evidence does not establish that Vermeer had such a relationship with the model.

The book became a bestseller and was adapted into the 2003 film directed by Peter Webber, starring Scarlett Johansson as Griet and Colin Firth as Vermeer. The film’s title refers to the painting, while its narrative follows Chevalier’s imaginative reconstruction rather than a documented biography.