A woman sits facing our right in profile, looking through downcast eyes at a lute she holds upright in her lap in this vertical painting. She has smooth, pale skin, and her tawny-brown hair is pulled gathered at the back of her neck. She holds her head high, so she looks down through lowered eyes toward her lap. Her full, pale-pink lips are slightly parted. Her long gown swirls with tones of pine, moss, and sage green with a few strokes of earth brown. Her garment, especially around the neckline, is loosely painted so it is difficult to tell if her decolletage is bare or is covered by a…
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Lady with a Lute

painter Thomas Wilmer Dewing (American, 1851 - 1938)

1886

Medium
oil on wood
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 50.8 x 40 cm (20 x 15 3/4 in.) ; framed: 88.3 x 77.2 x 9.5 cm (34 3/4 x 30 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.)
Culture
American
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Timme
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, 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 National Gallery of Art