This is the famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer. The subject in this painting is a mysterious girl looking over her shoulder at viewers, attracting them with her gaze. Viewers are fascinated by the dark background in contrast with her blue and yellow turban, brownish-yellow top, bright white collar, and her enormous pearl earring. People can look at this painting repeatedly, and never getting bored of it.  

According to Berger’s ideas, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” has been reproduced on the cover of the well-known novel with the same name, by Tracy Chevalier’s. The author sold over five million copies worldwide, with the purpose to share the interesting story about the painter Vermeer and his most famous painting.  

It is such a popular painting, that it has been used on cover of many other art books. Moreover, people can own the reproduced painting on cushions, coasters, T-shirts, bags, socks, suitcases, and many other things. The unpleasant form of information, is when the painting is reproduced as a meme, as we see on the second picture, during Covid-19, the girl in the painting appears with a mask on her face, and there are many other memes related to different topics. All memes distort the original meaning.