Art Imitating Art: 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'

A New Film Is Born of a Novel Inspired by Vermeer's Painting

by Lynn Neary

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Listen: Web Extra: Tracy Chevalier discusses writing books based on works of art.

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Detail from Cover of 'Girl With a Pearl Earring'

Detail from cover of Tracy Chevalier's book 'Girl With a Pearl Earring'

Weekend Edition Sunday, December 21, 2003 · It's art imitating art imitating art.

The new film Girl with a Pearl Earring is based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier -- a fictional account of the life of a young woman pictured in the famous Vermeer painting.

Chevalier, whose most recent book The Lady and the Unicorn is also based on a work of art (The Unicorn Tapestries), says she wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring after years of staring at a poster of the painting in her bedroom.

Now that the Chevalier book that was the Vermeer painting has become director Peter Webber's film -- starring Scarlett Johanssen in the title role -- NPR's Lynn Neary reports on what has been lost -- and added -- in the translation.

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