Vermeer


Woman with a Lute
Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675)
Oil on canvas, ca. 1670-72, Size 20 1/4 x 18 in. (51.4 x 45.7 cm)
Accession # 25.110.24
Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900

Gallery Label
"In this work of the early 1660s, a young woman in an ermine-trimmed jacket plays a lute and looks intently out the window. The viola da gamba on the floor and songbooks on the table suggest that she may be waiting for a male visitor. The canvas has suffered from abrasion, especially in the foreground, where the paint has also darkened with age."

photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, May, 2009