Vermeer reinterpreted: Girl with an Amber Earring
This year, the Netherlands will mark 150 years since the abolition of slavery in the country’s colonies. Cameroonian photographer Angèle Etoundi Essamba was inspired by this memorial year to reflect on the dark history behind it in her artwork. She created the 37-image photo series “Noire Vermeer”, for which she photographs black women wearing an amber earring. The project also incorporates sculptures and a video installation.
‘Noire Vermeer:’ Amber Earring Instead of Pearl
In her new interpretation of the famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by the Dutch painter Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), Angele Etoundi Essamba replaces the titular pearl earring with another one with an amber pendant piece. She presents her black subjects as free and self-confident women.
“The ‘Lady with the Amber Earring’ claims the right to look, shine and exist – totally authentic. She surveys us with her piercing gaze, stares us in the face and invites us to contemplation and wonder. In doing so, she demonstrates inner strength , intimacy and beauty”, says Essamba, summarizing her work for DW. “But she also remains unattainable; she just has to live up to it.”
Early fascination with Dutch painter Jan Vermeer
Vermeer’s paintings, created during the Dutch Golden Age, are considered masterpieces of European art. Twenty-eight of the works, including “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, are currently on display in a sold-out exhibition in Amsterdam. After his death at just 43 years old, Vermeer was largely forgotten for nearly 200 years and was only rediscovered in the second half of the 19th century.
Essamba admired Vermeer’s paintings from an early age. “What always fascinated me about his work is the central place he gave to women in his paintings”, explains the photographer, adding that her photographs parallel his works while reinterpreting them. “The subjects of his paintings are vivid-looking people from everyday life – just like the women and girls I photographed.” The Dutch painter’s influence is also seen in the formal style of “Noire Vermeer” in the use of light and contrast and in the primary colors blue and yellow.
A Golden Age for whom?
But despite being fascinated by Vermeer, Essamba also looks critically at the period in which he painted, known as the Dutch Golden Age, which largely took place in the 17th century. “It was a time when the Netherlands became the world’s leading economic and trading power. It was also a time when the country’s art and culture flourished. But all the glory and splendor of the Dutch Golden Age should not make us forget the darker side — that prosperity was based on a colonial system filled with violence, which in turn was based on inequality and exploitation.”
For that reason, Essamba says the question needs to be asked, “A Golden Age for whom?” She adds that black people were “depicted in paintings of the time as possessions, mainly to emphasize the high status of their owners”. By focusing on black women, she says, she creates a new narrative and celebrates “these enigmatic black figures, who for centuries were relegated to the background of Dutch painting”.
‘The Dutch don’t like to talk about slavery’
Born in 1962, the photographer has lived in Holland for 40 years and follows the way in which the country’s history is treated. “The Dutch don’t like to talk about the dark and very painful period of slavery in their history,” she told DW. Therefore, her project is also a means of confronting the history of injustice that black people have suffered.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Holland was one of the greatest colonial powers in the world. It is estimated that the country enslaved around 600,000 people, who were sent in inhumane conditions from Africa to South America and the Caribbean. The kingdom was one of the last European countries to officially abolish the slave trade, which it did on July 1, 1863. Essamba says, “This period shaped Dutch society as we know it, and therefore it is the story of all us.”
In December 2022, the Netherlands officially apologized for its involvement in the slave trade and acknowledged the long-term consequences, which are still being felt to this day. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at the time that the government wanted to cooperate with the descendants of slaves to reach an agreement and alleviate the suffering.
The 2023 memorial year is an ‘important step forward’
But the government’s official apology was criticized for being halfhearted. “The history of slavery still negatively affects the daily lives of some people. Many continue to suffer racism and discrimination,” says Essamba. She adds that this past needs to be acknowledged, so there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Even so, continues the artist, “it is an important recognition step that can help strengthen social cohesion”. She says that the commemorative year can also contribute to this. And with his “Noire Vermeer” project, Essamba says he wants to invite people to look critically at the past and deconstruct outdated perceptions.
This article has been translated from German.
Source: DW
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