The Music Lesson

Studio of Gerard ter Borch the Younger

National Gallery of Art

A woman wearing a pale yellow silk dress sits playing a lute in front of a table while a man, wearing a black suit and hat, stands behind her in this vertical painting. Both have light skin. The woman sits facing our right in profile as she looks at pages of sheet music propped on a wooden tabletop stand on the table in front of her. Her light brown hair is pulled back in a braid looped into a bun, and a few curly tendrils fall alongside her ears. She has a pointed nose, full cheeks, and a receding chin beneath closed lips. Light gleams off her pale, golden yellow jacket and skirt. The jacket has elbow-length sleeves and is lined with white fur, and her long skirt has a band of deep gold embroidery and possibly beading down the front and along the bottom hem. She rests one foot on a low wooden box, and the other is covered by her skirt. She sits in a straight-backed chair with a wine-red, upholstered back. The table in front of her, to our right, is covered with a burgundy-red cloth. Near the music stand are a small book with a brown cover, a silver, oval-shaped box, a silver candlestick holding a white, unlit candle, and a bunched up white cloth. Behind her, the man stands with his left hand, on our right, lifted over the sheet music. He tips his head forward to look down at the woman or her lute. He has thick, shoulder-length, wavy brown hair and a goatee. He wears a tall, brimmed, black hat, and there are ruffles of white fabric at his neck and the cuffs of his long sleeves. The room has a brown floor and smoke-gray walls. A door opens a little into the room to our left, behind the pair.