1881 - Finding the Girl and becoming a treasure

Left to many years of obscurity after the decline of the Dutch Republic, the Girl is found once again by Victor de Steurs and A. A. de Tombe at an auction at the Venduhuis der Notarissen in The Hague in 1881. The “Golden Age'' of the Netherlands is over, the Dutch Republic a distant memory, but its prominence in political and cultural history has only just begun. At a time of unprecedented emphasis on the power of the nation state, the Dutch nation needs a classical high culture to define itself as a descendant of a great civilisation. A civilisation capable of producing sophisticated paintings such as the Girl, for example. De Tombe, at the auction, realizes that the decrepit painting is a work by Vermeer, who is a key figure in Dutch cultural history and in the narrative of the “Golden Age”. From there, our Girl assumes a new identity.

Her image and likeness is reappropriated as part of the Dutch cultural collection, and her associations with the Ottoman Empire are eclipsed by her status as a painting by the Dutch painter, Vermeer. She becomes essentially Dutch because of this connection to “Golden Age” culture. Her image is not related to tolerance, admiration, or friendship, but is instead translated into a sign of Dutch nationalism and ‘high’ culture. The politics of the rapidly shifting world around her warps her identity into something completely different than what Vermeer might have intended. Her reappropriation for the ends of a Dutch (white) nationalist culture removes her from her Ottoman roots and connections—in fact, many people assume her turban to be blonde hair. The Girl is such a powerful cultural object because she has no fixed identity, and politics defines her now as an image of the ideal Dutch girl.