Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace

A young woman stands at a table and looks attentively into a mirror that hangs on the wall opposite her. She is engaged in putting on a pearl necklace, which she is holding on yellow ribbons. Cool light enters through a leaded window. On the table is an arrangement like a still-life of a vase with lid, fabrics, a powder box, jewellery case and comb. Here, by means of differentiated tonal gradations, Vermeer created masterly, finely nuanced colouring, which is further enhanced by oppositions such as the yellow of the curtain and the fur-trimmed jacket against the dark, blue-black foreground.