Ascagnes and Lucelle (The Music Lesson) – (Jan Steen) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Jan Steen

Date: 1667

Size: 86 x 76 cm

Technique: Oil On Canvas

A woman playing a lute sits next to a table, on which a man perches and leans toward her in this vertical painting. Two people look on from the background. All the people have pale skin. The table is covered by cloth patterned in brick red, fawn brown, and black, and it extends off the right edge of the painting. The woman sits along the narrow end of the table to our left of center. Her body faces us as she holds the lute in her lap, one foot resting on a small wooden box. Her left elbow, to our right, is propped on the table to hold the neck of the lute. Her curly, blond hair is pulled back under a string of pearls and a fuzzy salmon-pink cap, or a feather, covers the back of her head. The bodice and puffy, elbow-length sleeves of her gown have cream-white and peach-colored stripes, and the ivory-white satin skirt falls to her feet. She wears a thin gold necklace and pearl earrings. With lips parted, she turns her face up to look at the cleanshaven man sitting on the table next to her. The man’s brown curls fall loosely over his shoulders. A long, wide white collar hangs down the front of his mustard-brown jacket. The voluminous white shirt he wears underneath shows where the jacket is unbuttoned near his waist and at his cuffs. He wears thigh-length, red pantaloons and close-fitting tan leggings. Baggy white socks hang around his ankles, and his brown shoes are tied with laces. A wooden flute sticks out of the pocket farther from the woman, and he holds a tall black hat in his lap, cradled in his left hand, to our right. With his other hand, he reaches to pluck a string near the peg board of the lute. One foot dangles off the edge of the table, and the other is propped on a bench, next to an open book. A glass with a tall stem and rounded bowl sits on the table next to him. Farther back in the shadows of the room, an older woman looks toward the couple, perhaps at the man’s hand on the lute, with her mouth slightly open. A white bonnet frames the woman’s face, and she wears a black hood and cloak over her dark dress. A bed under a box-like canopy sits along the back wall, and is cut off by the left edge of the painting. Dark curtains hanging from the canopy are pulled back to show two white pillows laid one atop the other. Also at the back of the room, to our right, a man peers in through a half-opened, arched door. He wears a conical, black, brimless hat and has a white collar over a dark coat. He looks toward the older woman with one index finger held to the corner of his grinning mouth. The wall is covered with gold-embossed, brown leather squares. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had written in the open book on the bench: “J Steen 1667,” with the letters J and S entwined.