Girl with a Pearl Earring (novel) anticipating that the match will be to their benefit. Apart from "Girl with a Pearl Earring" itself, in which Griet is the sitter, several more of Vermeer’s paintings feature in Chevalier’s novel. At the very start, "View of Delft" is recalled by Griet’s father. When Griet enters the household, Vermeer is working on "Woman with a Pearl Necklace" and Tanneke mentions soon after that she had been Vermeer’s model for "The Milkmaid". His next subject is "Woman with a Water Jug", for which the baker’s daughter models. Griet describes the painting to her father and also witnesses its creation in
The Milkmaid (Vermeer) "an exceedingly pretty lass and right for the sport". The painting was first owned by (and may have been painted for) Pieter van Ruijven, owner of several other paintings by Vermeer which also depicted attractive young women and with themes of desire and self-denial quite different from the attitude of Pepys and many of the paintings in the Dutch "kitchenmaid" tradition. In Dutch, "Het Melkmeisje" is the painting's most-used name. Although this title is less accurate in modern Dutch, the word "meid" (maid) has gained a negative tone that is not present in its diminutive form ("meisje")—hence the use of