Gerrit van Honthorst
Woman Tuning a Lute
Gerrit van Honthorst
Utrecht 1590 – Utrecht 1656
Woman Tuning a Lute
1624
Oil on canvas
81.5 x 64.5 cm
Purchase, Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest, William Gilman Cheney Bequest and the Museum Campaign 1988-1993 Fund, inv. 2013.68
Western Art
The Museum dedicates this work to the memory of Ellen Clara and Bruno Richard Spiro, victims of the Holocaust.
A cheerful woman smiles brightly as she tunes her lute. This seemingly innocent act would have in fact been seen as risqué at the time. In seventeenth-century Netherlands, smiling with one’s teeth showing was considered somewhat vulgar, insinuating ‘low’ moral character. Additionally, Dutch music halls were often associated with the illicit sex trade. With levity and charm, this character study (tronie) daringly flirts with taboo yet popular subjects.
