Woman with a Lute
Woman With a Lute | |
---|---|
Artist | Johannes Vermeer |
Year | c. 1662-1663 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 51.4 cm × 45.7 cm (20.2 in × 18.0 in) |
Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Woman with a Lute, also known as Woman with a Lute Near a Window, is a painting created about 1662–1663 by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The painting depicts a young woman wearing an ermine-trimmed jacket and enormous pearl earrings as she eagerly looks out a window, presumably expecting a male visitor. "A musical courtship is suggested by the viola da gamba on the floor in the foreground and by the flow of songbooks across the tabletop and onto the floor," according to a web page about the work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. The tuning of a lute was recognized by contemporary viewers as a symbol of the virtue of temperance. The oil on canvas work is 20¼ inches high and 18 inches wide (51.4 × 45.7 cm).[1] The painting's canvas was almost certainly cut from the same bolt as that used for Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid.[2]
The work likely was painted shortly after Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, and it shares with that painting its framing of the figure within rectangular motifs. But the painting has more muted tones, reflecting a shift in that direction by Vermeer in the mid- to late 1660s. At this time, Vermeer began using shadows and soft contours to further evoke an atmosphere of intimacy. "The impression of spatial recession and atmosphere is somewhat diminished by darkening with age of the objects in the foreground and by abrasion of the paint surface, mostly in the same area," according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art web page.[1]
The painting was given to the museum in 1900 by a bequest of railroad industrialist Collis P. Huntington.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Vermeer's Masterpiece The Milkmaid/Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675)/Woman with a Lute, about 1662–63". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
- ^ Walter Liedtke; C. Richard Johnson Jr.; Don H. Johnson. "Canvas matches in Vermeer: a case study in the computer analysis of canvas supports" (PDF). Retrieved 5 May 2013.
Further reading
- Liedtke, Walter A. (2001). Vermeer and the Delft School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-973-4.
External links
- Web page about the painting – Metropolitan Museum of Art website
- Exhibition web page Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer, exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Woman with a Lute (cat. no. 8)
- v
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- List of works
- Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c. 1655)
- Saint Praxedis (c. 1655)
- Diana and Her Companions (c. 1653–1656)
- The Procuress (1656)
- A Girl Asleep (c. 1657)
- Officer and Laughing Girl (c. 1657)
- The Little Street (c. 1657–1658)
- The Milkmaid (c. 1657–1658)
- Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (c. 1657–1659)
- Girl Interrupted at Her Music (c. 1658–1659)
- The Girl with the Wine Glass (c. 1659–1660)
- The Wine Glass (c. 1660)
- View of Delft (c. 1660–1661)
- Woman with a Water Jug (c. 1660–1662)
- Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1662–1663)
- Woman with a Lute (c. 1662–1663)
- Woman Reading a Letter (c. 1663)
- The Concert (c. 1664)
- Woman with a Pearl Necklace (c. 1664)
- The Music Lesson (c. 1662–1665)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665)
- A Lady Writing a Letter (c. 1665)
- Girl with a Red Hat (c. 1665–1666)
- Study of a Young Woman (c. 1665–1667)
- Mistress and Maid (c. 1667)
- The Art of Painting (c. 1666–1668)
- The Astronomer (c. 1668)
- The Geographer (c. 1668–1669)
- The Lacemaker (c. 1669–1670)
- The Love Letter (c. 1669–1670)
- Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid (c. 1670–1671)
- The Allegory of Faith (c. 1670–1672)
- Lady Seated at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672)
- Lady Standing at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672)
- A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals (c. 1670–1672)
- The Guitar Player (c. 1672)
- Girl with a Flute (c. 1665–1670)
- The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (1934 painting)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999 novel)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003 film)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (2008 play)
- Maria Thins (mother-in-law)
- Maria de Knuijt and Pieter van Ruijven (patrons)
- Han van Meegeren
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
- Delft School (painting)
- Tronie
- Dutch Golden Age painting
- Hockney–Falco thesis
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft
- Vermeer Centre
- All the Vermeers in New York (1990 film)
- Writing to Vermeer (1999 opera)
- Chasing Vermeer (2004 novel)
- Vermeer's Hat (2008 history book)
- Tim's Vermeer (2013 documentary film)