<Tr> <Th> </Th> <Td> 44.5 cm × 39 cm (17.5 in × 15 in) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Location </Th> <Td> Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands </Td> </Tr> <P> Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Meisje met de parel) is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer . It is a tronie of a girl wearing a headscarf and a pearl earring . The painting has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902 . In 2006, the Dutch public selected it as the most beautiful painting in the Netherlands . </P> <P> The painting is a tronie, the Dutch 17th - century description of a' head' that was not meant to be a portrait . It depicts a European girl wearing an exotic dress, an oriental turban, and an improbably large pearl earring . In 2014, Dutch astrophysicist Vincent Icke raised doubts about the material of the earring and argued that it looks more like polished tin than pearl on the grounds of the specular reflection, the pear shape and the large size of the earring . </P>

Who painted the lady with the pearl earring