Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (The Music Lesson) by Johannes Vermeer was created in 1662 – 1665. The painting is in Royal Collection, London. The size of the work is 74,1 x 64,6 cm and is made as an oil on canvas.
The composition is characterised by the rigorous use of perspective to draw the eye towards the back of the room where the figures are situated – the young woman rather surprisingly seen from the back. The viewer is at first more aware of the jutting corner of the table, the chair and the bass viol than of the figures themselves, whose privacy is thereby protected. The back of the room, dominated by the virginals comparable with those made by Andreas Ruckers the Elder, is like a grid of verticals and horizontals into which the figures are carefully locked. (Read more in Royal Collection, London)
About the Artist: Dutch Baroque Period painter Johannes Vermeer specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. It is unclear where and with whom Vermeer apprenticed as a painter. There is some speculation that Carel Fabritius may have been his teacher. On 29 December 1653, Vermeer became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, a trade association for painters. The guild’s records make clear that Vermeer did not pay the usual admission fee. It was a year of plague, war, and economic crisis; Vermeer was not alone in experiencing difficult financial circumstances… Read more
You can order this work as an art print on canvas from canvastar.com
