Core Record |
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| Title | The Music Lesson | |
| Collection | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery | |
| Artist | Ochtervelt, Jacob (Dutch painter, 1634-1682) | |
| Date Earliest | about 1670 | |
| Date Latest | about 1672 | |
| Description | The theme of the music lesson first appeared in Dutch art around 1650 in the works of Metsu and Vermeer. In the background, the young lady's music teacher indicates the inscription on the spinet which may be loosely translated as, 'Music is a sweet alleviation of troubles' (the artist apparently adapted Horace's line from Odes 1: 32). Wright observes that the teacher often doubled as seducer. The artist has drawn a contrast between the maid's frank exchange with the music master and the more refined young lady's apparent guilelessness, seeming to be fully absorbed in her music making. | |
| Current Accession Number | 1955P113 | |
| Former Accession Number | P.113´55 | |
| Inscription | front (on the lid of the spinet) 'Musica Laborum Dulce Levamen' | |
| Subject | everyday life (music lesson) | |
| Measurements | 97.1 x 78.1 cm cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Bequeathed by Ernest E. Cook through the National Art-Collections Fund 1955. | |
| Provenance | Barchard sale, Christie's, London, 7 May 1836, lot 108, bought by Edward Marsland; bought by Sir Cuthbert W. Quilter, 1897; Cuthbert W. Quilter sale, Christie's, 1909, lot 115, bought by Agnew's (to Quilter), £89; Cuthbert W. Quilter sale, Christie's, 26 June 1936, lot 39 bought by Gooden & Fox Ltd. | |
| Principal Exhibitions | Dutch Art, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1904, cat. no. 374; Pictures from Birmingham, Agnew's, 1957, cat. no. 29; Dutch Painting of the Seventeenth Century, Ferens Art Gallery, 1961, cat. no. 75; Primitives to Picasso, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1962, cat. no. 128; Dutch Painting in the Seventeenth Century: Images of a Golden Age, Birmingham City Museums and Art Gallery, 1989 - 1990, cat. no. 92; A Gift to the Nation: The Fine and Decorative Art Collection of Ernest E Cook, Holburne Museum of Art, 1991, cat. no. 24. | |
| Publications | Graves, A., A Century of Loan Exhibitions, London, 1913 - 15, vol. 4, pp. 2098-99; Kurestsky, S. D., Jacob Ochtervelt, 1979, p. 65, ill.; Burlington Magazine, vol. 99, p. 132; 'The Quilter Pictures', Connoisseur, vol. 98, p. 120; Art Digest, (10) August 1936; Catalogue of Paintings in Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1960; Wright, C. (ed), Dutch Painting in the Seventeenth Century: Images of a Golden Age in British Collections, Birmingham, 1989, p.116, ill.; Foreign Paintings in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, A Summary Catalogue, 1983, no. 107; Sir Cuthbert Quilter's Pictures. London Collection, privately printed, no date, p. 60; A Gift to the Nation: The Fine and Decorative Art Collections of Ernest E. Cook, Holburne Museum, Bath, 1991, p. 20, no. 24. | |
| Notes | Edward Marsland was of The Wilderness, Reading. Note in file: 'Purchased by Sir Cuthbert Quilter in 1897. This may be the picture The Music Lesson', recorded in Seguier's Critical and Commerical Dictionary of the Works of Painters (p. 142) as having passed through an anonymous sale in London in 1836' (Sir Cuthbert Quilter's Pictures, no date). |
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| Rights Owner | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery | |
| Author | Dr Patricia Smyth | |