The Music Lesson
Jacob Ochtervelt (Dutch, 1634-1682)
1671
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 80.2 × 65.5 cm (31 × 25 3/16 in.); Framed: 98.4 × 81.6 × 6.4 cm (38 3/4 × 32 1/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Holland
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Jacob Ochtervelt animated this intimate scene with delicate light, which illuminates the young woman and leaves the young man partly in shadow. The artist positioned the figures in angled poses suggesting a playful interaction. The girl holds a violin, an instrument then more often played by men, and points authoritatively to the music score, another reversal of typical gender roles for the period. By upending these conventions, Ochtervelt quietly commented on the rituals of romance in the 17th century.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
