Interior with a Woman Playing a Virginal

Emanuel de Witte

1655

Purchase, John W. Tempest Fund, inv. 1894.41

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

A woman plays a virginal in a sunlit room with a checkered floor. Sunlight streams through a doorway and windows, illuminating the interior. De Witte is one of the most renowned Dutch painters of architectural interiors. His paintings, punctuated with depictions of everyday life, are characterized by lofty spaces, orderly perspectival effects, and a careful rendering of the quality and effect of daylight and atmosphere. This painting, one of his greatest works, was done in Amsterdam but strongly reflects the artist’s early training in Delft. The house depicted is probably imaginary, as such deep houses did not exist in Amsterdam. In the left foreground a man, barely visible, lies in a bed, his clothes tossed on a chair, listening to the music being played. The canvas may