The Music Lesson

INV-0512

Gerard ter Borch the Younger (Dutch, 1617-1681)

c. 1670

17th Centurypaintingoil on canvas

Date

c. 1670

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

63.6 × 50.4 cm (25 × 19 7/8 in.); Framed: 84.8 × 70.8 × 6.4 cm (33 3/8 × 27 7/8 × 2 1/2 in.)

Museum

Art Institute of Chicago

Location

Chicago, IL

Credit

Gift of Charles T. Yerkes

In this small-scale scene of everyday life, a woman plays the double-headed lute as her companion marks the tempo. He is presumably her music instructor, but the similarity in their ages and the presence of the bed in the background make the precise relationship of the figures tantalizingly ambiguous. Gerard ter Borch the Younger painted many images like this one, featuring military officers and elegant young women in shimmering satin conversing, making music, or exchanging letters.

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