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Woman Playing a Guitar

ca. 1618
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 622

Created during his years in Rome, this painting reveals Vouet’s abiding interest in the work of Caravaggio with its dramatic lighting and psychological engagement as a woman averts our gaze while suggestively pushing the guitar to her breast. After his return to Paris in 1627, Vouet abandoned the moody atmosphere and bodily presence of paintings such as this in favor of clear light, sculptural bodies, and jewel tones. Although not among the French Royal Academy’s founding members, many of his students became that institution’s most influential voices.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Woman Playing a Guitar
  • Artist: Simon Vouet (French, Paris 1590–1649 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1618
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 42 × 29 7/8 in. (106.5 × 75.8 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, 2017 Benefit Fund; Lila Acheson Wallace Gift; Mary Trumbull Adams and Victor Wilbour Memorial Funds; Friends of European Paintings and Henry and Lucy Moses Fund Inc. Gifts; Gift of Julia A. Berwind, by exchange; Charles and Jessie Price, Otto Naumann, Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Chilton Jr., and Sally and Howard Lepow Gifts; Charles B. Curtis Fund; and Theodocia and Joseph Arkus Gift, 2017
  • Object Number: 2017.242
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Lucretia
Simon Vouet
Portrait of Louis XIII, Simon Vouet French, Black and white chalk with touches of pastel on light brown paper
Portrait of Louis XIII
Simon Vouet
ca. 1632–35
Two Crouching Nude Male Figures, Simon Vouet French, Black chalk heightened with white on beige paper; two vertical ruled lines in red chalk, center
Two Crouching Nude Male Figures
Simon Vouet
ca. 1640
Woman with a Staff Looking Upward, Simon Vouet French, Black chalk, heightened with white, on beige paper
Woman with a Staff Looking Upward
Simon Vouet
early 17th century
St. Louis in Glory, Simon Vouet French, Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on beige paper; framing lines in pen and brown ink
St. Louis in Glory
Simon Vouet
ca. 1640–41

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