Painting of the Dutch Golden Age entitled ???irl with a Pearl Earring??(Meisje met de parel). Oil on canvas c.1665 by the Dutch artist of the Delft School Johannes Vermeer (Jan Vermeer van Delft, 1632-1675). The Dutch 17th-century description of this painting is a ???ronie?? a portrait not meant to be a specific person but someone more generalised, mysterious, dressed in exotic clothing, in this case an imaginary European girl wearing an oriental-style turban and a large pearl earring. The painting is in the collection of the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in The Hague and is considered by many to be Vermeer's finest masterpiece.