Woman with a Lute

Lute player at the window is a 51.4 inches high and 45.7 inches wide oil painting by Jan Vermeer. It is one of several pictures in which Vermeer painted young women in music-making. The lute player at the window is part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image description

The painting shows a young woman while tuning her lute. She wears a yellow-white satin jacket with fur trim, a pearl necklace and a large pearl earrings as. Do not focus on what they do, but looks to the left of the window. Here, the viewer is not clear whether they someone or something looks or looks out dreamy. Before the young woman lying on the table books, a book is also on the ground near the lower right corner. In the left foreground is a chair with a lion's head stands out clearly from the bright background. Above the chair is a blue coat or a blanket. Hard to recognize the viola lying under the table is da gamba.

In the background hangs a large map of Europe on the wall. Among them is located at the right edge of another chair.

Attribution and dating

The attribution of the lute player at the window as Vermeer's work is widely recognized, only Albert Blankert doubted this. The dating of the image is difficult as in many works of Vermeer, as it was not recorded by the artist. Two datings are discussed. Firstly, the classification of 1665 due to stylistic similarities to the picture letter writer in yellow, on the other hand is also discussed 1662/1663, as the lute player has similarities in composition with the image of Young woman with water pot at the window at the window.

Provenance

The image lute player at the window may have been auctioned on the auction Philip van der Schley and Daniel du Pré on 22 December 1817 in Amsterdam. As a result, it was purchased by Collis P. Huntington and inherited from him with his entire collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.