The Music Lesson
c. 1662–1665 · Oil on canvas · Royal Collection Trust, London
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About this work
- Artist
- Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675)
- Year
- c. 1662–1665
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 74.1 × 64.6 cm
- Collection
- Royal Collection Trust, London
- Movement
- Dutch Golden Age
A young woman stands at a virginal with her back to the viewer, her face visible only in the mirror above the instrument, while a gentleman beside her listens, or perhaps sings. A bass viol lies on the tiled floor, a white jug sits on the carpeted table, and the inscription on the virginal's lid speaks of music as the companion of joy and the medicine of sorrow. Vermeer painted it around 1662 to 1665, and it was among the pictures still in his house when he died in 1675. The Venetian painter Pellegrini acquired it in 1718, it passed to the collector Joseph Smith, and George III bought Smith's collection in 1762; it has been in the Royal Collection ever since, though it was catalogued as a Frans van Mieris until Thoré identified Vermeer's hand in 1866. It is usually shown in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Details & materials
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About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
