A Dutch painting of a young girl survives three and a half centuries through loss, flood, anonymity, theft, secrecy, even the Holocaust. This is the story of its owners whose lives are influenced by its beauty and mystery. Despite their unsatisfied longings, their own and others’ flaws, the girl in hyacinth blue has the power to engender love in all its human variety.
Looking through the cheap Kindle books I stumbled on this one which I read several years ago and think is worth checking out. A series of short stories trace the fictional history of an imaginary painting by Vermeer from 1990s New Hampshire to the artist himself. Published the same year as Girl with a Pearl Earring, Girl in Hyacinth Blue is about how a painting fits into the lives of its owners rather than the life of the subject of a painting. I’d recommended it to those interested in art history who enjoy short stories.
I wasn’t sure what “Books into Film” on the Amazon page referred to, but apparently Girl in Hyacinth Blue was adapted into a TV movie called Brush with Fate starring Glenn Close in 2003.
