Girl with a Pearl Earring (Vermeer, 1665)

Johannes Vermeer's c.1665 oil painting of an anonymous girl wearing a large pearl earring against a dark background is sometimes called "the Mona Lisa of the North." The 44.5 x 39 cm painting, housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, inspired Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel (and its 2003 film adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson) and drew a record 407,000 visitors in 2014. Infrared analysis in 2020 revealed Vermeer originally painted a green curtain in the background.