Lute player

Lute Player from 1629 by Judith Leyster is one of her earliest known works, already showing the musical subjects and lively characterization that would define her career. The painting reflects the influence of Frans Hals's animated portrait style on the young artist, who had studied in his Haarlem circle. Musical subjects in Dutch genre painting connected to the allegorical tradition of sound as one of the five senses, while also providing imagery of youthful pleasure and social cultivation. Leyster's musical figures often carry the additional resonance of sensory allegory within the moralizing framework of Dutch genre painting. This early work demonstrates the confidence and technical assurance that led to her admission as master of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke in 1633, one of only a handful of women to achieve this status in the Dutch Golden Age.

The musician is rendered with the bold, direct brushwork that Leyster developed under Hals's influence, the instrument and features painted with confident naturalistic observation.