A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier is an oil on wood painting by Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch the Younger, created c. 1658. The work depicts a young woman playing a theorbo while her lover looks on. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
Description Ter Borch's painting portrays a scene in which a young woman plays a theorbo-lute (a stringed instrument) while her suitor sits nearby. The man is a cavalier, a 17th-century soldier, and he is seen to be sitting atop a cloth-covered table. His sword is laid flat to his left, while a songbook (a common lovers' gift during the time period) rests nearby. The scene is ambiguous in nature, the young woman can be either an honest maiden or a courtesan. A pocket watch, possibly representing temperance or the fleeting nature of the affair, lies near the other objects.Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 67, 70–74, no. 15, colorpl. 15, fig. 14 (color detail); vol. 2, p. 871.
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