Orange peels to bottle caps: Thousands of artists create their own 'Girl with Pearl Earring'

A 2020 investigation into the painting using a battery of modern imaging techniques uncovered details about Vermeer's methods and the makeup of his pigments, but not the young woman's identity. (Image credit: @AcademiaAesthe1/X)

After sending its most famous work to be featured in Amsterdam's blockbuster 2023 exhibition of nearly every work by Johannes Vermeer, the Mauritshuis museum found itself with a blank space where the iconic “Girl with a Pearl Earring” had been displayed.

The Hague-based institution turned to more than 2,700 artists, from Texas to Ukraine, from age 7 to 70, who created their own interpretations of the 17th-century masterpiece.

A selection of 60 works using materials ranging from orange peels to bottle caps to sweatshirts were exhibited in the museum while the painting was on loan 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the north.

“The submissions continue to come, it will never end with her,” Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis museum, told The Associated Press, pointing to the ongoing popularity of works featuring the mystery girl.

A 2020 investigation into the painting using a battery of modern imaging techniques uncovered details about Vermeer's methods and the makeup of his pigments, but not the young woman's identity.

“I bring together the original The Girl with a Pearl and the face of a Wayang puppet,” artist Rob de Heer told the AP, standing in front of a screen in the museum's foyer where all of the winning submissions are displayed.

De Heer, who primarily works with mixed media, wanted to take an image from the Golden Age history of the Netherlands and combine it with one evoking its colonial legacy. Wayang puppets are a traditional form of theatre in parts of Indonesia, which was ruled by the Netherlands until 1949.

His surrealist work is followed in the rolling display by a piece featuring the original girl's face superimposed on an antique tea tin.

Other submissions include works by South Korean artist Nanan Kang, who used an ear of corn for the face; Georgian artist Nino Kavazauri, who reimagined a modern girl waiting at a bus stop with a cup of coffee; and Simon Chong, a Welsh animator, who works on the popular television series “Bob's Burgers” and created a girl in the show's cartoon style.

The winners were displayed in a replica frame in the exact spot where “Girl with a Pearl Earring” usually hangs, between two portraits by Dutch Baroque painter Gerard ter Borch.

The popularity of the first competition prompted a second round and those submissions are now on display at the Fabrique des Lumières in Amsterdam. The museum continues to feature submitted works of art on its Instagram page.

Gosselink, who has been the museum's director since 2020, said the breadth and depth of the works made it difficult to select who would be featured in the exhibition.

“I would dare to say that some of the ones we selected are new pieces of art, and they would be served very well in a new surrounding, like a museum," Gosselink said.

Scientists unlock secret of 'Girl With Pearl Earring'

Last year, scientists found that viewers of the 17th century masterpiece were held captive by a special neurological phenomenon they called "Sustained Attentional Loop", which they believe is unique to the "Girl With The Pearl Earring".

The viewer's eye is automatically drawn first to the girl's own eye, then down to her mouth, then across to the pearl, then back to the eye -- and so it continues.

This makes you look at the painting longer than others, explained Martin de Munnik, from research company Neurensics that carried out the study.

"You have to pay attention whether you want to or not. You have to love her whether you want to or not," he said.

By measuring brainwaves, the scientists also discovered the precuneus, the part of the brain governing consciousness and personal identity, was the most stimulated.

"It was predictable that the Girl was special. But the 'why' was also a surprise to us," said De Munnik.

He said it was the first known study to use EEG and MRI brain scanning machines to measure the neurological response to artwork.

"The longer you look at somebody, the more beautiful or more attractive somebody becomes," he noted, which also explains the popularity of the Dutch master's subject.

"Why are you familiar with this painting and not with the other paintings? Because of this special thing she has."

(With inputs from agencies)