Girl with a Pearl Earring is about Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (film) . Scarlett Johansson stars as Griet , a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer ( played by Colin Firth ) at the time he painted Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 1665 ) in the city of Delft in Holland . Johannes , Jan or Johan Vermeer ( [ vərˈmɪər ] [ joːˈɦɑnəs jɑn vərˈmeːr ] ; 1632 -- December 1675 ) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life .