ART WIKI
The Music Lesson, Gerard ter Borch, c. 1670
Gerard ter Borch, portraitGerard ter BorchDutch, 1617–1681

The Music Lesson

c. 1670 · Painting

Can I see it?

Yes, on view now

Where is “The Music Lesson” now? Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 212, Chicago. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Room212

Closed· opens tomorrow at 11:00 AM

On public display.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum
On the mapMuseum page

About the painting

Gerard ter Borch specialized in small-scale portraits and scenes of everyday life. He often painted images like this one, featuring military officers and elegant young women conversing, making music, or exchanging letters. Here, a lady plays an elaborate stringed instrument, the double-headed lute, while her companion marks the tempo for her. He is presumably her music instructor, but the similarity in their ages and the presence of the bed in the background make the precise relationship of the figures tantalizingly ambiguous.

Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0

Details

Accession number
1891.1

What it shows

MusicDogFiguresHomesInstrumentsInteriorManWomanCentury of ProgressWorld fair, world exhibitionChicago World's Fairs

In the catalog

PaintingsOilDutch paintingBaroque17th centuryNetherlands

Sources

More by Gerard ter Borch

All works
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c. 1648 - c. 1650 · Rijksmuseum

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Helena van der Schalcke

c. 1648 · Rijksmuseum

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c. 1654 - c. 1655 · Rijksmuseum

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ca. 1666–67 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Margaretha van Haexbergen (1614–1676), Gerard ter Borch the Younger, ca. 1666–67

Margaretha van Haexbergen (1614–1676)

ca. 1666–67 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Het sluiten van de Vrede van Munster, Gerard ter Borch, 1648

Het sluiten van de Vrede van Munster

1648 · Rijksmuseum

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A Young Woman at Her Toilet with a Maid

ca. 1650–51 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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second quarter of the 17th century (c. 1652) · Musée du Louvre

In the same room · Gallery 212, Art Institute of Chicago

Museum page
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The Music Lesson, 1671

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A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes and Hourglass, Edwaert Collier, 1662

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Adriaen van der Spelt

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On the same theme · Music

All works on the theme
The Musicians, Caravaggio, 1597

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two Young Girls at the Piano, Auguste Renoir, 1892

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The Spanish Singer, Edouard Manet, 1860

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National Gallery of Art

Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol, c. 1980

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Debbie Harry, c. 1980

Not on view · National Gallery of Art

The Old Guitarist, Pablo Picasso, late 1903–early 1904

Pablo Picasso

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Not on view · Art Institute of Chicago

Mezzetin, Antoine Watteau, ca. 1718–20

Jean-Antoine Watteau

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Johannes Vermeer

Woman with a Lute, ca. 1662–63

The Metropolitan Museum of Art