ARTWORKS

A Woman playing a Virginal, Another singing and a Man playing a Violin

Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682)

The National Gallery, London

A Woman playing a Virginal, Another singing and a Man playing a Violin

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Jacob Ochtervelt has focused our gaze on a brilliantly dressed woman standing at a virginal. Light falls onto her bare left shoulder and on the huge double dome of red satin that forms the back of the skirt and its train. She seems cut off from an intimate exchange between a female singer and a violinist taking place at the left of the scene.

Two dogs on opposite sides of the room are engaged in a game that sets the flirtatious tone for the painting. Interestingly, the dog on the right was completely painted out in the early 1920s, possibly because it was felt that the music was being ‘drowned by yapping dogs’, as the text in an auction catalogue put it. The map on the background wall is taken from an atlas-sized map of North and South America published in Amsterdam in 1661.

The National Gallery, London

London

Read more on The National Gallery, London
Title

A Woman playing a Virginal, Another singing and a Man playing a Violin

Date

probably 1675-80

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 84.5 x W 75 cm

Accession number

NG3864

Acquisition method

Bought, 1924

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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Artist or maker

Jacob Ochtervelt

1634–1682

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