Femina 2 "Woman with a Pearl Earring" by Cindy Brendzel

Woman with a Pearl Earring

For this piece, the second of our 20 Perspectives ‘Femina’, or Feminine, series, I again decided to look for inspiration in the artistic renderings of iconic females of other eras.    I landed on ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ painted by Johannes Vermeer in 1665.  Vermeer is widely considered to be the greatest painter during the 17^thcentury Dutch Golden Age. 

Scholars believe this painting is an idealized girl’s face rather than a portrait, although a local girl from Deft probably posed for it.  She is a young girl with an expression of vulnerability about her, and a slightly open mouth (apparently considered scandalous at the time). 

For my piece I decided I would make her a “women of a certain age” instead of a girl from the neighborhood. Even with her grey hair pinned up in a very loose bun, feminine is ageless.  But she’s tired. Maybe she’s someone working in the kitchen of the Vermeer household.  She is happy to sit and pose for a while.  In the back of her mind she’s thinking of all there is left to do before the day is over but she keeps her mouth shut rather than complain.

I used commercial cotton and repurposed fabrics.