Tracy Chevalier(1962 — ?)
Tracy Chevalier
États-Unis, Royaume-Uni
6 min read
Tracy Chevalier is an American novelist born in 1962 and based in London. She is known worldwide for her historical novel *Girl with a Pearl Earring* (1999), inspired by Vermeer's painting and adapted for film in 2003.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born on October 19, 1962, in Washington, D.C. (United States)
- Published *Girl with a Pearl Earring* in 1999, her most famous novel
- The novel was adapted for film in 2003 with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth
- Author of several historical novels, including *The Lady and the Unicorn* (2003) and *Remarkable Creatures* (2009)
- Based in the United Kingdom since 1984
Works & Achievements
Her first novel, alternating between a contemporary plot and the story of a Huguenot woman in the 16th century.
Her most famous novel, imagining the story behind Vermeer's painting; a worldwide success and bestseller.
A novel about the creation of the famous medieval tapestries kept at the Cluny Museum in Paris.
A novel set in late-18th-century London, centred on the poet and engraver William Blake.
An account of the life of palaeontologist Mary Anning and her fossil discoveries at Lyme Regis.
A novel about an English Quaker woman confronting slavery and the Underground Railroad in the United States.
The story of a family of American pioneers and the cultivation of apple trees in the 19th century.
A novel spanning the centuries about a dynasty of glassblowers from the island of Murano, near Venice.
Anecdotes
Before becoming a novelist, Tracy Chevalier worked for years as a reference editor in London, compiling directories of writers. She waited until she was nearly thirty to take a creative writing course at the University of East Anglia, proving that you can start an artistic career later in life.
The idea for *Girl with a Pearl Earring* came to her simply from looking at a reproduction of Vermeer's painting that had hung in her bedroom since she was nineteen. One morning she wondered what this young woman with the enigmatic gaze might be thinking, and the whole novel was born from that question.
Vermeer's painting that inspired Tracy Chevalier carries almost no information: we know neither who the young woman is nor the exact date. It is precisely this mystery, these gaps in the story, that allowed the novelist to freely invent a life around the model.
To write her historical novels, Tracy Chevalier carries out real investigations: she learned to sew quilts for *The Last Runaway* and studied the making of medieval tapestry for *The Lady and the Unicorn*, in order to describe the craftspeople's gestures with precision.
Born American in Washington State (the federal capital), Tracy Chevalier settled in England in 1984 and stayed there. So she writes about Europe and British history while keeping the eye of an outsider, which feeds her curiosity for the details of everyday life.
Primary Sources
« My mother did not tell me they were coming. Afterwards she said she did not want me to appear nervous. » (the novel's opening lines, in which the maidservant Griet recounts the Vermeers' arrival).
She explains that she owned a reproduction of Vermeer's painting for years and one day found herself wondering what kind of look the young girl was giving the painter.
The novel gives voice to Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, the fossil hunters of Lyme Regis, and brings to life their discoveries of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs in the early nineteenth century.
Key Places
Birthplace of Tracy Chevalier, where she grew up before leaving to study and then live in Europe.
University where she earned her degree in English in 1984 before settling in England.
Where she completed a master's in creative writing in 1994, a decisive step toward her career as a novelist.
City where Tracy Chevalier has lived and worked since the 1980s; she writes most of her novels here.
Vermeer's birthplace and the setting of “Girl with a Pearl Earring”; Tracy Chevalier did research there on its seventeenth-century surroundings.
Small coastal town in Dorset, the setting of “Remarkable Creatures” and the site of Mary Anning's fossil discoveries.
