The Music Lesson

Last updated
The Music Lesson
Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, Woman Seated at a Virginal
Johannes Vermeer - Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman, 'The Music Lesson' - Google Art Project.jpg
Artist Johannes Vermeer
Yearc. 1662–1665
Medium Oil on canvas
Movement Baroque painting, Dutch Golden Age painting
Dimensions74.6 cm× 64.1 cm(29.4 in× 25.2 in)
Location King's Gallery, London
Owner Royal Collection
AccessionRCIN 405346

The Music Lesson, Woman Seated at a Virginal or A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman by Johannes Vermeer is a painting of a young female pupil receiving a music lesson from a man. The man's mouth is slightly agape giving the impression that he is singing along with the music that the young girl is playing. This suggests that there is a relationship between the two figures and the idea of love and music being bridged together. This was a common theme among Netherlandish art in this time period. Vermeer consistently used the same objects within his paintings such as the draped rug, the white water jug, various instruments, tiled floor and windows that convey light and shadows. This is one of few paintings produced by Vermeer which were kept in his home until his death in 1675 when his family was forced to sell them. It became a part of the Royal Collection, and it is currently on display in the King's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London. [1]

Contents

Provenance

The picture was sold in May 1696 in Delft, part of the collection of Jacob Dissous, which included many Vermeers. It was later acquired by Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini in 1718, with Pellegrini's collection later being bought by Joseph Smith. [2] The Music Lesson has been part of the Royal Collection of Great Britain since 1762, when King George III bought Smith's collection of paintings. [3] When the painting was acquired it was believed to be a work by Frans van Mieris the elder because of a misinterpretation of the signature. It was not correctly attributed to Vermeer until 1866 by Théophile Thoré, though some scholars were skeptical whether it was Vermeer or not. [2] It has at various times been kept at both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and is depicted in Charles Wild's Windsor Castle: the King's Closet, 1816, a watercolour prepared for William Pyne's History of the Royal Residences. [4]

Painting materials

The painting was investigated by Hermann Kühn in 1968 [5] and there is also material on the pigment analysis on the website of the National Gallery in London [6] where the painting was included in the exhibition "Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure" [7] in 2013. The Music Lesson is a mature work of Vermeer and his handling of color and his choice of painting materials [8] is but one of the aspects proving his mastery. The painting is dominated by dark areas such as the bluish-black floor painted in bone black with the addition of natural ultramarine.

The 2013 documentary film Tim's Vermeer documents inventor and entrepreneur Tim Jenison's attempt to recreate The Music Lesson to test his theory that Vermeer painted with the help of optical devices. [9] [10] Jenison is given the opportunity for a brief private viewing of the painting at Buckingham Palace. The film's claim that Vermeer used something similar to Jenison's technique has been controversial and was derided by the art critic Jonathan Jones. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Vermeer</span> Dutch painter (1632–1675)

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer. He was not wealthy; at his death, his wife was left in debt.

<i>The Little Street</i> 1657–1658 painting by Johannes Vermeer

The Little Street is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, executed c. 1657-1658. It is exhibited at the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, and signed, below the window in the lower left-hand corner, "I V MEER".

<i>The Milkmaid</i> (Vermeer) 1658–1661 painting by Johannes Vermeer

The Milkmaid, sometimes called The Kitchen Maid, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid", in fact, a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Collection</span> Art collection of the British Royal Family

The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.

<i>Christ in the House of Martha and Mary</i> (Vermeer) Painting by Johannes Vermeer

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is a painting finished in 1655 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. It is now in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. It is the largest painting by Vermeer and one of the very few with an overt religious motive. The story of Christ visiting the household of the two sisters Mary of Bethany and Martha goes back to the New Testament. The work has also been called Christ in the House of Mary and Martha.

<i>A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals</i> Painting by Johannes Vermeer

A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals is a painting today attributed to Johannes Vermeer, though this was for a long time widely questioned. A series of technical examinations from 1993 onwards confirm the attribution. It is thought to date from c.1670 and is now in part of the Leiden Collection in New York. It should not be confused with Young Woman Seated at a Virginal in the National Gallery, London, also by Vermeer.

<i>Lady Seated at a Virginal</i> 1670–1672 painting by Johannes Vermeer

Lady Seated at a Virginal, also known as Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, is a genre painting created by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer in about 1670–1672 and now in the National Gallery, London.

<i>Lady Standing at a Virginal</i> Painting by Johannes Vermeer

Lady Standing at a Virginal is a genre painting created by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in about 1670–1672, now in the National Gallery, London.

<i>Officer and Laughing Girl</i> Painting by Johannes Vermeer c. 1657

Officer and Laughing Girl, also known as Officer and a Laughing Girl, Officer With a Laughing Girl or, in Dutch, De Soldaat en het Lachende Meisje, is an oil painting on canvas executed ca. 1657 by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Its dimensions are 50.5 by 46 cm. It is now one of three pictures by Vermeer in The Frick Collection in New York

<i>Girl with a Red Hat</i> 1665–1666 painting by Johannes Vermeer

Girl with a Red Hat is a rather small painting, signed by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is seen as one of a number of Vermeer's tronies – depictions of models fancifully dressed that were not intended to be portraits of specific, identifiable subjects. Whether Vermeer chose family members as models or found them elsewhere in Delft is irrelevant to the appreciation of his paintings. Its attribution to Vermeer – as it is on a (recycled) wood panel and not on canvas – has been a matter of controversy with scholars on both sides of the argument. However, in recent study carried out by the curators of National Gallery of Art certainty has been established on the authorship of the painting by Vermeer, a conclusion also supported by Dutch experts.

<i>View of Delft</i> 1660–1661 painting by Johannes Vermeer

View of Delft is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted c. 1659–1661. The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is among his best known. It is one of three known paintings of Delft by Vermeer, along with The Little Street and the lost painting House Standing in Delft, and his only cityscape. According to art historian Emma Barker, cityscapes across water, which were popular in the Netherlands at the time, celebrated the city and its trade. Vermeer's View of Delft has been held in the Dutch Royal Cabinet of Paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague since its establishment in 1822.

<i>Woman Holding a Balance</i> 1662–1663 painting by Johannes Vermeer

Woman Holding a Balance, also called Woman Testing a Balance, is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

<i>Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window</i> 1657–1659 painting by Johannes Vermeer

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, also known as Lady reading at an open window, is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Completed in approximately 1657–1659, the painting is on display at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, which has held it since 1742. For many years, the attribution of the painting—which features a young Dutch woman reading a letter before an open window—was lost, with first Rembrandt and then Pieter de Hooch being credited for the work before it was properly identified in 1880. After World War II, the painting was briefly in possession of the Soviet Union. In 2017, tests revealed that the painting had been altered after the painter's death.

<i>The Procuress</i> (Vermeer) 1656 painting by Johannes Vermeer

The Procuress is a 1656 oil-on-canvas painting by the then 24-year-old Johannes Vermeer. It can be seen in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. It is his first genre painting and shows a scene of contemporary life, an image of mercenary love perhaps in a brothel. It differs from his earlier biblical and mythological scenes. It is one of only three paintings Vermeer signed and dated. In 1696 the painting, being sold on an auction in Amsterdam, was named "A merry company in a room".

Jacob Abrahamsz. Dissius was a Dutch typographer and printer. He inherited a collection of 21 of Johannes Vermeer's works, including The Milkmaid, Portrait of a Young Woman, A Girl Asleep, Woman Holding a Balance, and The Music Lesson. In 1680, he married Magdalena, daughter and sole heir of Vermeer's main patron Maria de Knuijt, her mother, with her father Pieter van Ruijven. Dissius died in 1695, and his collection was auctioned off in Amsterdam the following year.

<i>The Guitar Player</i> (Vermeer) 1672 painting by Johannes Vermeer

The Guitar Player is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age artist Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), dated c. 1672. This work of art is one of Vermeer's final artistic activities, providing insight into the techniques he mastered and approaches to painting he favored. The painting has been on display at Kenwood House, London since the 1920s, as part of the Iveagh Bequest collection. After being recovered from a theft in 1974, when the painting was held for ransom, The Guitar Player was returned to Kenwood House.

<i>Girl with a Flute</i> 1665–1670 painting attributed to Johannes Vermeer

Girl with a Flute is a small painting attributed to either Johannes Vermeer or one of his associates. It is currently believed to have probably been painted between 1669–1675. It is owned by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. along with three paintings attributed to Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance, A Lady Writing a Letter, and Girl with a Red Hat.

<i>Tims Vermeer</i> 2013 American film

Tim's Vermeer is a 2013 documentary film, directed by Teller, produced by his stage partner Penn Jillette and Farley Ziegler, about inventor Tim Jenison's efforts to duplicate the painting techniques of Johannes Vermeer, in order to test his hypothesis that Vermeer painted with the help of optical devices.

<i>Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room</i> Painting by Pieter de Hooch

Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room (1658) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch; it is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is now in the Royal Collection, and on display at the King's Gallery in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Vermeer in popular culture</span>

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class life. His works have been a common theme in literature and films in popular culture since the rediscovery of his works by 20th century art scholars.

References

  1. "Explore the Royal Collection Online". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
  2. 1 2 "The Royal Collection". The Royal Collection. Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2013-12-24.
  3. White, Christopher (1982). The Pictures in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen: the Dutch Pictures. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-24283-5.
  4. "Windsor Castle: the King's Closet, 1816" . Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  5. Kuhn, H. A Study of the Pigments and Grounds Used by Jan Vermeer. Reports and Studies in the History of Art, 1968, 154–202
  6. Vermeer's palette, National Gallery London
  7. "Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure | Exhibitions and displays | What's on | National Gallery". www.nationalgallery.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2014-10-08.
  8. Johannes Vermeer, 'The Music Lesson, Colourlex
  9. Andersen, Kurt (November 29, 2013). "Reverse-Engineering a Genius (Has a Vermeer Mystery Been Solved?)". Vanity Fair.
  10. "Tim Jenison's Vermeer, The Music Lesson". Vanity Fair . Archived from the original on January 12, 2014.
  11. "DIY Vermeer documentary utterly misses the point about old masters". the Guardian. January 28, 2014.

Further reading