Girl Without a Pearl Earring

Some faces stay with us not because of what they wear, but because of what they refuse to need.

This is a tronie — a painting of an imagined figure, a type rather than a person. A girl in a dark red collarless blouse against a cool blue ground, her profile emerging sharply from the shade. Her gaze fixes on something just beyond the frame: intense, and yet somehow calm. Unlike Vermeer's famous girl, she wears no pearl, no oriental costume. And that is the point of the title — in her plainness, she seems adorned anyway. Completeness needs no jewel.

Look at the edge where her profile meets the blue — it is the sharpest line in the painting.

The painting matured slowly, over years — I returned to it the way Vermeer is said to have worked, deliberately, without hurry. It is oil on canvas, 81 × 60 cm, painted in the way I have painted for four decades: the figure simplified until it carries psychological weight rather than likeness.

She is a companion for anyone who wants to look calmly and boldly into the future. Some viewers see defiance in her; others see peace. Both are right.

Oil on canvas · 81 × 60 cm · 2013 · One of a kind · Signed · Certificate of authenticity · $1,500, shipping included · Arrives boxed, ready to hang · My works are held in museum and private collections in Europe, the USA and Dubai

If this face stays with you, write to me — I will tell you more about her story.