The interrupted music lesson

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The Interrupted Music Lesson (Jan Vermeer)
The interrupted music lesson
Jan Vermeer , 1660/1661
Oil on canvas
38.7 x 43.9 cm
Frick Collection

The Interrupted Music Lesson is an oil painting by Jan Vermeer . The 38.7 centimeter high and 43.9 centimeter wide picture was created in 1660/1661 and shows a motif from genre painting with thewoman readinga love letter and the man standing behind her. The interrupted music lesson now hangs in the Frick Collection in New York .

Image description

The interrupted music lesson is a genre scene that shows two characters. The seated young woman, dressed in a red jacket and a white headscarf, has put the lute and the notes on the table and turned to a letter. This was just given to her by the man standing behind her, which, together with her uncertain gaze turned out of the picture, indicates that it is a love letter . The eroticism is only indicated indirectly in the picture with the picture on the back wall, which shows a representation of Cupid . This appears several times in Vermeer's works as picture within picture.

Provenance

In 1901, Henry Clay Frick acquired the painting The Interrupted Music Lesson for $ 26,000 from his art dealer Charles Carstairs of Knoedler & Company . The reason for the purchase is unknown, so it can only be speculated about. The influence of the generally increasing interest in Jan Vermeer's art in Europe and America is possible. The price paid was quite high compared to other purchases from Vermeers. The interrupted music lesson was Jan Vermeer’s fourth painting to find its way to the United States.

The painting was in a UK private collection prior to purchase and was cleaned as the transaction paved the way. The restorer removed a purple curtain on the back wall, which is described in an auction catalog from 1810 because he thought this curtain was a later addition. He left the bird cage on the left edge of the picture, the original existence of which is also doubted, intact.

The interrupted music lesson is exhibited in the Frick Collection in New York .

Individual evidence

  1. a b Article on the three Vermeers in the collection on frick.org, accessed July 14, 2008

literature

Web links