Girl In Hyacinth Blue

The author keeps the painting’s creator ambiguous throughout the novel, oscillating between it being a true Vermeer or a copy. By the end of the novel do you believe it is a Vermeer or a copy? Do you think it matters that the reader knows, or does the ambiguity add to the story? Using textual support, write an essay on your position.

In the book, the author speaks about the role of art and the meaning of life. What are some instances that illustrate the intersection of the meaning of life and the role of art? How do you personally think art and life co-exist? In your essay, discuss the way art impacts life and the way life influences art using both references to the novel and your own experience.

Many of the characters are an echo of earlier ones. Pick two characters from different stories and compare them in regard to theme, character conflict, and each characters’ individual transformations.

Are Hannah and Magdalena similar? Why or why not? How do they each view the painting, and are there similarities or differences in the ideas and insight the paintings give each of them individually?

One of the themes that resonates throughout the book is that each person brings their own personality to a painting. Sometimes it is in the form of a conflict or a wish. Sometimes the personality is unquestionably good, and sometimes a character, impacted by the painting, lacks moral fortitude. How has art impacted your life? In what ways has art changed your life or given you a new way of understanding yourself and the world around you? 

Vermeer mentally battles his lack of consistent income with his need to paint. At one point, he asks himself “Why does the world need another painting of a woman alone in a room” (204)? How might you answer this question? Do you think it is worth being poor so you can paint? Do you think he is shirking his responsibility as a husband and a father? Do you think the world doesn’t need another painting of a woman or a tree or a house in a field? Write an essay taking a position on some of the questions above and address it in a letter to Vermeer.

Many characters leave old lives and move into a new way of living. Some go the opposite way, giving up the life they have to go elsewhere. Using examples from the stories, discuss the author’s attention to origin and displacement. How does the author imagine the concept of home or not fitting in? Use three stories to support your answer.

Whether or not the painting is authentic seems to be a worry to many of the main characters as well as some of the secondary characters like buyers and shop owners. Often, the personal value is higher than the monetary value. Discuss the different values people place on art in the novel both as an artifact to be admired and as commerce from which to profit.