Tracy Chevalier pulls stories from paintings and historical episodes, finding the human thread behind opaque images. Her best-known book is Girl With a Pearl Earring, inspired by a Vermeer painting; other books include The Lady and the Unicorn and Burning Bright, about two children who become neighbours of William Blake. Her upcoming book, The Last Runaway, tells a story from the Underground Railroad.
For the anthology Imagined Lives, she wrote about an unknown portrait sitter whom she calls "Rosy." Hear the podcast of her story. and find more stories from the National Portrait Gallery.
Tracy Chevalier, the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), first saw the Johannes Vermeer painting that inspired her novel when she was 19-years-old. Struck by the colors, as well as the expression on said girl’s face, Chevalier stood in front of the painting for hours and bought a poster of it on her […]
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