Help me find an old painting I saw once.

July 13, 2016 10:27 AM

I saw a painting online that gave me a peculiar sense of deja vu. I'd love to see it again.

Everything I remember about it: It was not a super-old painting, but I doubt that it was from the 20th century. It showed a narrow bedroom or sitting room with paintings on the walls. The room read as "Italian," but I can't say why exactly. Possibly the style of the windows. I think there was someone sitting in the room playing a lute or something like that and possibly someone watching them. There may have been a little dog, I'm not sure. The room was small but one had the sense that it depicted a room in a fancy house.

I consider myself well-grounded in art history and this was not a famous painting that I'm aware of, but the painter may have been well-known. It was painted in a fairly realistic style, with perhaps a hint of nostalgia.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

posted by gentian to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

Could it have been the Love Letter, by Vermeer? Here's a link to the painting, , although it is older than you are suggesting.
posted by Behemoth, in no. 302-bis, with the Browning at 10:30 AM on July 13, 2016

Response by poster: Nope. But that definitely has most of the components of The Painting.
posted by gentian at 10:37 AM on July 13, 2016

Is it this (untitled) one by Hendrik Sorgh?
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:37 AM on July 13, 2016

Response by poster: No. Boy, I didn't realize how many paintings contained these elements! Thank you both anyway.
posted by gentian at 10:40 AM on July 13, 2016

OK, how about A Man Playing the Lute, a Woman with a Dog, and a Page by Gabriël Metsu?
posted by Behemoth, in no. 302-bis, with the Browning at 10:54 AM on July 13, 2016

Alternatively, The Lute Player by Willem van Mieris.
posted by Behemoth, in no. 302-bis, with the Browning at 10:57 AM on July 13, 2016

Quiringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam's "An interior with a lute player and a woman holding a parrot"

Woman with Lute by Vermeer (no listener, though)
posted by beagle at 10:58 AM on July 13, 2016

Response by poster: None of those. The focus of the painting was the room, which was small but light and airy. I think the colors of the walls were blue.
posted by gentian at 11:30 AM on July 13, 2016

No lute, but everything else: "Man Handing a Letter to a Woman in the Entrance Hall of a House, by Pieter de Hooch".
posted by Behemoth, in no. 302-bis, with the Browning at 11:45 AM on July 13, 2016

Maybe a long shot because it's more impressionism and no lute, but Sunlight in the Blue Room?
posted by specialagentwebb at 11:50 AM on July 13, 2016

The Arnolfini Portrait?
posted by slenderloris at 12:43 PM on July 13, 2016

Anna Archer's Sunlight in the Blue Room (since you weren't positive about the lute playing)?
posted by paperback version at 1:03 PM on July 13, 2016

(Sorry, just noticed my suggestion was already posted!)
posted by paperback version at 1:48 PM on July 13, 2016

Matisse The Lute
posted by beagle at 1:55 PM on July 13, 2016

Response by poster: Still no luck! The room reminded me of a monk's cell; it's that small.
posted by gentian at 1:59 PM on July 13, 2016

The Lute Concert?

The Guitar Player?
posted by praemunire at 11:07 PM on July 13, 2016

This dude has a huge collection of paintings of peeps playing various instruments?

For some reason I keep thinking that maybe its a Scandinavian painter? Carl Larsson or Edelfelt?
posted by speakeasy at 2:13 AM on July 14, 2016