A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier

Artist
Gerard ter Borch (II)
Year
ca. 1658
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
36.8 × 32.4 cm

In a quiet candlelit interior, a woman plays a theorbo-lute while a cavalier listens beside her, a glass of wine on the table between them. Gerard ter Borch was the subtlest of the Dutch genre painters, rendering fabric, light and gesture with a restraint that anticipates Vermeer.