The Music Lesson

Gerard ter Borch

about 1668

Oil on canvas, Oil, Canvas

J. Paul Getty Museum

A man in a hat and ruffled collar gestures towards a music stand while a woman in a red and white trimmed dress plays a lute-like instrument. A dog sleeps on a chair to the left. "Love will prevail as long as there is music and merrymaking," wrote Dutch poet Jacob Cats in the 1600s; this painting exemplifies Cats's slogan. As the elegantly dressed woman plays the lute, a man, who may be her instructor, keeps rhythm and time with his hand. The foot warmer in the lower left corner symbolizes love, and the bed suggests an amorous relationship between the man and woman, maybe even seduction. Gerard ter Borch always set a mood, creating a subtle psychological interplay between the people in his intimate paintings. He delighted in meticulously describing and contrasting varied textures: the soft pile of the woman'