Who painted Girl with Pearl Earring?

• A. Picasso
• B. Bosch
• C. Stravinsky
• D. Vermeer

Answer: (D)

Recognizing attribution comes from matching the work to an artist’s distinctive style and era. Girl with a Pearl Earring is a famous piece by Johannes Vermeer, the Dutch master of the 17th century known for quiet, sunlit interiors and meticulous, lifelike rendering of textures and skin. Painted around 1665, it shows a young woman turning toward the viewer with a luminous pearl earring, a composition and light treatment that exemplify Vermeer’s approach to everyday scenes and his skill at depicting subtle, natural illumination. This makes Vermeer the best fit for the painting. By contrast, Picasso represents 20th-century modernism, Bosch is an earlier Netherlandish painter known for fantastical imagery, and Stravinsky is a composer, not a painter.