The Love Lesson

This Love Lesson, around 1716 and in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, depicts a young woman receiving instruction in music from a male companion — an ostensible lesson in guitar playing that is clearly also a lesson in the emotional language of love. The deliberate ambiguity between musical and amorous instruction was central to Watteau's art, where music always functioned as a metaphor for the emotional transactions of courtship. Watteau painted in oil on panel and canvas using luminous brushstrokes laid over careful preparation, achieving a shimmering surface that captures the play of light on silk and the atmosphere of damp parkland. He died of tuberculosis in 1721 at thirty-six, and the couple isolated in their garden — their intimate interaction framed by trees and foliage, the music suggesting emotional intimacy that cannot quite be expressed directly — carries the characteristic Watteau note of desire hedged by restraint.

The couple is isolated in a garden setting, their intimate interaction framed by trees and foliage. Watteau's rendering of the woman's silk dress and the man's attentive posture conveys the charged atmosphere of private instruction.