Vermeer painted just 35 pictures in his lifetime, but many of them were of working women.
Reporter Claudia Hammond met Tracy Chevalier, who wrote the novel Girl with a Pearl Earring on which the film is based, and Louise Govier who works at the National Gallery in London.
Girl with the Pearl Earring ByTracy Chevalier Published by HarperCollins ISBN: 0007172826
The film Girl with the Pearl Earring is released in cinemas around the country Friday 16 January, certificate 12A
