Search results

Start typing

Willem van Mieris (Leiden 1662-Leiden 1747)

The Neglected Lute c.1710

Oil on panel | 47.2 x 38.8 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 405543

Your share link is...

  Close

  • The subject of this painting is one in which Dutch painters were well versed by the beginning of the eighteenth century, when The Neglected Lute, which was acquired by George IV with the collection of Sir Francis Baring, was painted. A direct comparison can be made with the paintings by Gerard ter Borch and Gabriel Metsu, although A lady at the virginal with a gentleman by Vermeer (Royal Collection) is also pertinent. The scene is one of seduction, combining the pleasures of taste, love and music in a suitably grand interior. The man is encouraging the woman to drink whilst her lapdog barks at the servant entering the room through an arch. The oysters - recognised for their aphrodisiacal qualities - are moist and delicately coloured. The decoration in the room includes some fictitious sculpture, almost a trademark for Willem van Mieris, comprising a statue possibly of the young Bacchus and a relief of gambolling putti. Great care has been lavished on the texture of the various surfaces - the sheen of the silk-satin; the fibres of the carpet; the reflective qualities of silver, glass, wood and mollusc. Above all, there is the theatrical treatment of the light that not only picks out the principal figures, but also creates a feeling of recession into the shadowy background. There is an almost operatic feel to the intensity of highlight striking the underside of the looped curtain at upper left that is reflected across to the cushion covering the stool on the right.

    Van Mieris painted variations on this theme, including The lute player of 1711 in the Wallace Collection, London. He reused the models in other compositions: the man in Children’s Games of 1702 in the Wallace Collection and the girl in a number of pictures, including An old man and a girl at a vegetable and fish shop. It is possible that the male model is a self-portrait of the artist.

    Catalogue entry adapted from Enchanting the Eye: Dutch paintings of the Golden Age, London, 2004

    Provenance

    Purchased by George IV from Sir Thomas Baring as part of a group of 86 Dutch and Flemish paintings, most of which were collected by Sir Thomas’s father, Sir Francis Baring; they arrived at Carlton House on 6 May 1814; recorded in the Anti Room, Ground Floor, at Carlton House in 1816 (no 131) and the Anti-Room to the Dining Room in 1819 (no 83); in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace in 1841 (no 74)

  • Medium and techniques

    Oil on panel

    Measurements

    47.2 x 38.8 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)

    66.0 x 57.5 x 7.0 cm (frame, external)


The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.