On its home page, the Google search engine regularly honors historical figures, artists and athletes.
This Friday, it is the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer who sits on the doodle instead of the usual logo.
If the date of November 12 was chosen to pay homage to the father of “The Girl with a Pearl Earring”, it is because two major retrospectives of his work opened on this same date 26 years ago, in 1995. One at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the other at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, reports Le Point.
Read also The Cupid hidden in the canvas of Vermeer finally exposed
This double exhibition included 21 of the 36 (or 37, according to certain attributions) works by Johannes Vermeer, or Jan Van der Meer of his real name.
Despite a relatively short life - he died at age 43 - the artist is considered one of the greatest masters of 17th century Dutch painting.
Three canvases chosen by Google
Vermeer is a genre painter, whose works represent interiors, intimate scenes, characters performing a daily task.
The best known of these are undoubtedly "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" (painted around 1665), "The Milkmaid" (painted between 1658 and 1660) or even "The Astronomer" and "View of Delft" , city where he spent his life.
In its doodle, Google chose to illustrate the tribute to Vermeer with three other canvases: “The Art of Painting”, “Woman Writing a Letter and Her Maid”, and “The Reader at the Window”.
