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The young woman at the keyboard holds our eye with a direct gaze. The empty chair suggests she is expecting someone and the large painting of a naked Cupid, the god of erotic love, on the wall behind her may be a signal that she is waiting for her lover. Scenes of music making were a popular genre in seventeenth-century Holland. They were often associated with romantic encounters, sometimes obviously bawdy ones, sometimes apparently innocent. Here, the style of the Cupid painting derives from a book illustration on the theme of faithful love. There has been much speculation that this picture and another by Vermeer, A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (also in the National Gallery), might have been made as a pair. There are many similarities between the two, but also an apparent contrast.
Title
A Young Woman standing at a Virginal
Date
about 1670-2
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 51.7 x W 45.2 cm
Accession number
NG1383
Acquisition method
Bought, 1892
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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