MIERIS, Willem van
(b. 1662, Leiden, d. 1747, Leiden)

The Lute Player

1711
Oil on wood, 50 x 41 cm
Wallace Collection, London

This genre work was executed in an antique-looking manner. It constitutes a classicistic reworking of highly conventional imagery within the genre painting repertoire. A curtain is pulled back to reveal a social gathering in which a splendidly attired female tunes her lute as a young suitor offers her a glass of wine.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):
Franz Schubert: An die Laute (To the Lute) D 905