The singing lesson

Alessandro Magnasco was a Genoese painter who specialised in small-scale genre scenes featuring monks, friars, vagabonds, and musicians in atmospheric, half-ruined settings. The Singing Lesson is characteristic of his playful yet slightly sinister approach to genre subject matter. Magnasco's manner — with its rapid, almost calligraphic brushwork and flickering chiaroscuro — was highly individual and stood apart from the mainstream of early eighteenth-century Italian painting.

Magnasco's characteristic rapid handling is immediately evident: figures are suggested rather than fully modelled, with flashing lights defining gestures and expressions. The setting is shadowy and indistinct, typical of his genre scenes. The interaction between teacher and pupil carries the slightly comic, grotesque quality that distinguishes his work from conventional genre painting.