Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring and Eduard Manet’s Olympia portray different artists who draw females in different art backgrounds. In in-depth scrutiny of both arts, it is easy to observe the message in which each art tries to reveal. Both paintings have different themes that have a wide range of differences.

Both artists use their paintings to demonstrate the effectiveness of gazes in art. In the Girl with the Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer portrays the face of a young lady whose face is drawn against a background that displays darkness. The young and beautiful lady has a colorful turban comprising of blue and yellow covering her head as she stares at her viewers from her left side of her face. In a further examination, her lips have a red color and are partially open, meaning that she could be talking about something that no one can easily decode. Her gaze towards the audience and viewers is again a mystery for it is hard to understand if she is gazing away or towards the stated viewers.

“She gazes out at the audience with bright eyes and lips slightly parted as if she is about to speak. It is unclear whether she is turning towards or away from the viewer.”[i]

Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring is significant as the picture takes the viewer back to the drawing board as they attempt to decode the message from the art. No one can fully categorize the true meaning behind the gaze, and it even becomes harder to understand the intentions of the art

On the other hand, Eduard Manet’s Olympia image displays a White naked woman lying on top of a bed while receiving flowers from her Black maid. The naked lady lays down looking rather bored while being provocative as she seems to wait for a perfect match. The gaze in her eyes portrays a seductive look towards the audience, especially trying to seduce male compatriots. Her gaze illustrates a woman who is desperate for sexual encounters for she seems to be in the right mood. She sets the mood from the laying of cream and white bed sheets as she spreads the flowers all over her bed.

“…and creates a luscious harmony in the cream, white and rose bed sheets, the artful bouquet, and stylish slippers.”[ii]

Manet’s drawing is substantial in describing how the woman eventually turns into a prostitute.

“Venus has become a prostitute, challenging the viewer with her calculating look.”[iii]

From the two painting both the painters expressed different themes regarding sexualizing females. Manet produces the perfect example of sexualizing a female by drawing her completely naked as she lay on a bed smeared with roses and covered with the white and cream bed sheets, indicating that Manet visualized the female body in a more lustful manner. The woman from the photo is demonstrated as a prostitute who only enjoys sexual arousal more than conducting her other daily obligations. Her nudity becomes a platform for erotic display to the male gazers at large. In the actual drawing of the Olympia, there is a black cat at the bottom of the picture. The combination of a nude female body and a cat identifies how the heightened atmosphere for promiscuity is manifested on the drawing.

“The terms of that offering in the European artistic tradition are subject to conventions calculated to flatter the male viewer and to stimulate his fantasy of sexual domination.” [iv]

The Girl with a Pearl Earring sexualizes a female least directly compared to the Olympia. She does not fully reveal her sexual desires, but one could note from her screaming red lipstick and the eye gaze that would leave most of the men wondering if she could be taking it as slow as possible.

“Seductive yet silent, this exquisite nameless creature is known simply as the Girl with a Pearl Earring” [v]

In analyzing the color and lining in the two paintings, some viewable observations clearly distinguish the paintings. The Olympia by Manet displays the use of pale painting to draw the naked lady compared to a previous painting which was done by Titian called Venus of Urbino. Manet tends to use a pale painting for the skin color of the naked woman in dissimilarity to the drawing by Titian which revealed more lust and sexuality of the naked lady.

“Olympia’s flesh is tonally unmodelled and pale, unidealized in contrast to that of Venus, who looks peachy and soft. The nude in Manet’s painting is depicted in a stylewhich is avant-garde, the nude in Titian’s in a style that is wholly canonical.”[vi]

A diagonal lining in the same painting towards the lower part of the woman’s body illustrates how art is replicated from the original piece and that people tend to produce their version of art that should be entirely different from the unique piece. As earlier stated, the picture was an extract from the original artwork by Titian. However, in the spin-off, the painting is less detailed from the original. The Olympia painting showed lack of clarity during the painting process as it lacked the necessary depth to portray a modern prostitute.

In the Girl with the Pearl Earring, Vermeer demonstrated his artistic qualities by using light to produce different tones of color that brought up one beautiful painting.

“The play of light on the Girl’s cheek, eyelids, and lips are instantly recognizable as Vermeer was posthumously titled the “Master of Light” and was known for his fine attention to the way the light played on the skin, fabrics, and precious stones. Scholars have admiringly noted the lack of linear distinction between the nose and cheek, as Vermeer has counted on his use of light tones to implying the different facets of her face. Similarly, pale pink and white highlights along the lips making them appear moist and fleshy, adding to the air of mysticism that surrounds the image. The audience is left to wonder whether she stopped speaking when she made eye contact with the viewer or had simply paused to take a breath.”[vii]

In conclusion, both the artists used the element of gazing in producing their art. Vermeer’s painting made more people evaluate the actual meaning of the art for it brought up mixed reactions from the public rather than Manet’s drawing which was straightforward in explaining the gaze. Besides, Vermeer used a perfect blend of colors to produce his paint by even using light to perfectly balance the art while Manet made a makeshift painting that left out the essential details of perfectionism.

[i]Birch, Ellie. 2019. The Art Story. Accessed February 26, 2019. https://www.theartstory.org/artist-vermeer-johannes-artworks.htm.

[ii] Cross, William R. 2017. Manet, Edouard – VM – William R. Cross. April 9. Accessed February 26, 2019. http://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=2318&action=show&lang=en.

[iii]d’Orsay, Musée. 2006-2019. Olympia. Accessed February 26, 2019. https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/olympia-7087.html?tx_kleemobileredirection=1&cHash=fdb3c161a8.

[iv]Bernheimer, Charles. 1989. “Poetics Today.” In Manet’s Olympia: The Figuration of Scandal, 255-277. Duke University Press.

[v]Sooke, Alastair. 2014. Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring: Who was she? October 21. Accessed February 26, 2019. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140701-who-was-the-mysterious-girl.

[vi]Huntsman, Penny. 2015. Thinking About Art. London: Association of Art Historians.

[vii] Birch, Ellie. 2019. The Art Story. Accessed February 26, 2019. https://www.theartstory.org/artist-vermeer-johannes-artworks.html

Bibliography

Bernheimer, Charles. 1989. “Poetics Today.” In Manet’s Olympia: The Figuration of Scandal, 255-277. Duke University Press.

Birch, Ellie. 2019. The Art Story. Accessed February 26, 2019. https://www.theartstory.org/artist-vermeer-johannes-artworks.htm.

Cross, William R. 2017. Manet, Edouard – VM – William R. Cross. April 9. Accessed February 26, 2019. http://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=2318&action=show&lang=en.

d’Orsay, Musée. 2006-2019. Olympia. Accessed February 26, 2019. https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/olympia-7087.html?tx_kleemobileredirection=1&cHash=fdb3c161a8.

Huntsman, Penny. 2015. Thinking About Art. London: Association of Arts Historians.

Sooke, Alastair. 2014. Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring: Who was she? October 21. Accessed February 26, 2019. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140701-who-was-the-mysterious-girl.

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