Woman Playing a Guitar

The Artist: Simon Vouet (see fig. 1 above) is one of a number of major artists, among whom are Jusepe de Ribera, Valentin de Boulogne, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Bartolomeo Manfredi, who worked in Rome in the immediate aftermath of Caravaggio’s death and absorbed his dramatic treatment of expressive lighting, startling naturalism, and psychologically penetrating approach to narrative subjects. Most of the artists who built on Caravaggio’s legacy were northerners. Vouet, a Frenchman, is no exception. He arrived in the papal capital in 1613, as a twenty-three-year-old pensionnaire of the French crown. Previously, he had painted portraits in England, traveled to Constantinople with the French ambassador, and visited Venice. In addition to his prodigious artistic talent, Vouet was endowed with great charm and wit. Eager to make his mark, he had the advantage of access to important people and enjoyed the patronage of the sophisticated antiquarian Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657) and the highest tier of Rome’s noble families. His interest in Caravaggism, which was on the decline in Rome in the 1620s, was most intense during Vouet’s first years—prior to his trip to Genoa in 1621 to work for the illustrious Doria family. Upon his return, his work shows an increasing interest in the great painters from Bologna—Guido Reni, Guercino, Domenichino, and Giovanni Lanfranco—who dominated artistic production under the short papacy of Gregory XV (1621–23); the work of these artists forms the basis for Vouet's mature and unmistakably personal style combining elegance with fluency of composition. He was elected head of the painters’ academy, the Accademia di San Luca, in 1624 and in 1626 married
Virginia da Vezzo (or Vezzi), a painter in her own right who modeled for some of his paintings (for example, the Magdalen in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). He was also closely associated with Artemisia Gentileschi, whose portrait he painted. Despite his success in Italy—he was papal painter to Urban VIII—in 1627 the artist returned to France, having been summoned by Louis XIII, who appointed him premier peintre du Roi. In France Vouet’s “Italian” manner of lush and brilliant painting, matched by an unmistakably elegant palette, dominated French artistic practice and was challenged only by Poussin’s classicism in the 1640s.

The Painting: The painting depicts a woman playing a guitar and is described in Crelly’s (1962) pioneering monograph on Simon Vouet as a “key example of the style of Vouet’s early Roman years.” Cropped below her knees, the woman is sumptuously dressed in heavy satin. Above a full red skirt, she wears a linen shirt, seen under the abundant green folds of her satin sleeve and twisted scarf. Francesco Solinas (2014) believes the instrument is Neapolitan. Perhaps the closest point of reference for dating the picture is Vouet’s Two Lovers, which, although known only from period copies, was engraved by Claude Vignon and dated 1618. The picture can be compared stylistically to the large Birth of the Virgin, the artist’s first public commission, in the Marescotti Chapel in San Francesco a Ripa, in Rome. That work was painted sometime before 1620, and The Met’s picture is thus datable to about 1618, though the precise chronology of the artist’s early work is far from settled (a Fortune Teller in the Galleria d’Arte Antica in the Palazzo Barberini is from the Dal Pozzo collection and has on its reverse an inscription with Vouet’s name and the date 1617). All of these paintings reflect Vouet's original adaptation of Caravaggio’s dramatic lighting and psychological engagement with the beholder. In the Birth of the Virgin, the figure of Saint Anne is derived from Michelangelo and the cloth-swathed head at the far right draws from one of Ter Brugghen's favorite devices, indicating Vouet’s attentive integration of current artistic trends. The Met’s painting was an independent work meant for the gallery of a private collector. It is first mentioned in 1677, when its owner, a British resident in Rome, Robert Harpur, was marketing his collection. Subsequently it formed part of the prestigious Patrizi collection.

The Theme: Women playing guitars have a long history in European painting. Depicted in landscapes in Venetian paintings of the sixteenth century, these woman, usually in sensuous dress, are seductive both as courtesans and representations of love. Seventeenth-century French engravings of modes and manners often depict women with a guitar, lost in reverie. One, dated 1630, has the caption “Omnia vincit Amor nec Musica vincit Amorem” (Love Conquers All but Music Does Not Conquer Love). Some scholars believe these images were the source for Vermeer’s famous painting of a woman playing a guitar (Kenwood House, London). The tradition continued well into the nineteenth century, with Manet’s portrayal of Victorine Meurant (the model who posed for his Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia) looking off in the distance as she plays the guitar (The Guitar Player, 1866; Hill–Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut). The subject was often repeated in the hands of Picasso and Matisse as well.

Stephan Wolohojian 2017

Robert Harpur, Rome (in 1677); marchese Francesco Naro Chigi Patrizi-Montoro, Palazzo Patrizi, Castel Giuliano, Bracciano (until d. 1813; posthumous inv., 1814); marchesi Patrizi Naro Chigi Montoro, Bracciano and Palazzo Patrizi, Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (1813–2017); [Paul Smeets, Monaco, until 2017; sold to The Met]

Rome. Galleria nazionale d'arte antica, Palazzo Barberini. "I segreti di un collezionista: le straordinarie raccolte di Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1588–1657," September 29–November 26, 2000, no. 63 (lent by the marchesi Patrizi, Rome).

Biella, Italy. Museo del Territorio Biellese. "I segreti di un collezionista: le straordinarie raccolte di Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1588–1657," December 16, 2001–March 16, 2002, no. 82.

Florence. Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti. "Maria de' Medici (1573–1642): una principessa fiorentina sul trono di Francia," March 19–September 4, 2005, no. III.44 (lent by the marchesi Patrizi Naro Montoro, Rome).

Accademia di Francia a Roma - Villa Medici. "I bassifondi del Barocco: la Roma del vizio e della miseria," October 7, 2014–January 18, 2015, no. 35 (lent by the marchesi Patrizi Naro Chigi Montoro, Rome).

Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Les Bas-fonds du baroque: La Rome du vice et de la misère," February 24–May 24, 2015, no. 35.

Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 12–October 17, 2021, unnumbered cat.

Osaka. Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," November 13, 2021–January 16, 2022, no. 28.

Tokyo. National Art Center. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," February 9–May 30, 2022, no. 28.

Inventario della Bona Memoria Signor Marchese Francesco Patrizi de beni mobili posti in Castel Giuliano. June 22, 1814 [Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Archivio Patrizi Montoro, B 454, fasc. 37, carte s.n.; published in Pedrocchi 2000, p. 436; Getty no. I-3788], as "Un Quadro in tela palmi quattro rappresentante una Figura che suona la Chitarra, Pittore fiammingho cornice modello Salvator Rosa cornice ad oro buono 0.6".

Luigi Grassi. "Aggiunta al catalogo di Simon Vouet." Paragone 7 (November 1956), pp. 54–58, pls. 33–34 (overall and detail), attributes it to Vouet and locates it in the collection of marchese Patrizio Patrizi, noting that in 1945 the painting was transferred from the family's property in Bracciano to their palazzo in Rome and that it was at that time ascribed to Caravaggio; states that Roberto Longhi pointed out to him a close stylistic relationship between this painting and "Two Lovers" in the Pallavicini collection, Rome (now considered a copy); tentatively dates it late in Vouet's Roman period ("una 'ripresa' caravaggesca tardiva"), between 1624 and 1626.

Gerald Burdon. "Sir Thomas Isham: An English Collector in Rome in 1677–8." Italian Studies 15 (1960), p. 24, publishes a list drawn up by Robert Harpur in 1677 of fifty-five pictures he was offering for sale, including "18: or[iginal]: A woman playing upon ye Ghitarre orig: of Monsr: Voet amonghst ye french one of ye best Painters & one of his best peeces," adding in a footnote that no painting by Vouet of this subject is known.

William R. Crelly. The Painting of Simon Vouet. New Haven, 1962, pp. 22–23, 43–44, 184, 214–15, no. 136, fig. 7, calls it and the artist's "Two Lovers," which was engraved by Claude Vignon and dated 1618, key examples of Vouet's Caravaggesque early Roman period; relates the pictorial type to Orazio Gentileschi's "Lute Player" (National Gallery of Art, Washington) and the style to Artemisia Gentileschi's "Repentant Magdalen" (Palazzo Pitti, Florence).

Donald Posner. "Review of Crelly 1962." Art Bulletin 45 (September 1963), pp. 288, 291, sees the influence of Borgianni in Vouet's early works such as this one and the "Two Lovers," both of which he thinks could be as early as 1615–16; states that Howard Hibbard informed him that this picture is included in a 1739 inventory of the Patrizi collection, although not in one of 1624 (but see Pedrocchi 2000 "Le Stanze"); associates it with the work on Robert Harpur's list of 1677 (see Burdon 1960) and states that the Patrizi family probably bought it from Harpur.

Georgette Dargent and Jacques Thuillier. "Simon Vouet en Italie: essai de catalogue critique." Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte 4 (1965), p. 51, no. V3, fig. 11, include it with works that they call insufficiently documented but probably autograph, although not ruling out the possibility that it is by a student; disagreeing with Grassi (1956), date it about 1618–20.

R. Ward Bissell. "Artemisia Gentileschi—A New Documented Chronology." Art Bulletin 50 (June 1968), p. 164.

Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée and Jean-Pierre Cuzin. I caravaggeschi francesi. Exh. cat., Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici. Rome, [1973], pp. 92, 200, 248 [French ed., "Valentin et les caravagesques français," Paris, 1974, pp. 94, 206, 255], date it about 1618, but call it difficult to judge and possibly a copy.

Benedict Nicolson. The International Caravaggesque Movement. Oxford, 1979, p. 109 [2nd ed., rev. and enl. by Luisa Vertova, "Caravaggism in Europe," Turin, 1989, vol. 1, p. 211; vol. 2, pl. 717].

Anna Maria Pedrocchi. Le Stanze del Tesoriere: la Quadreria Patrizi, cultura senese nella storia del collezionismo romano del Seicento. Milan, 2000, p. 331, no. 179, ill., states that the earliest Patrizi inventory in which the picture appears is from 1814, and for that reason hypothesizes that it may not have entered the collection until the mid-eighteenth century; believes that the Venetian chromaticism indicates a date early in Vouet's Roman period, also calling it one of his most Caravaggesque paintings.

Anna Maria Pedrocchi in I segreti di un collezionista: le straordinarie raccolte di Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1588–1657. Ed. Francesco Solinas. Exh. cat., Galleria nazionale d'arte antica, Palazzo Barberini. Rome, 2000, pp. 65–66, no. 63, ill. (color) [Biella ed., 2001, pp. 169–70, no. 82, ill. (color)], states that the picture did not enter the Patrizi collection until the end of the eighteenth century and notes that it is similar to numerous female half-figures Vouet painted for Cassiano dal Pozzo; dates it immediately before Vouet's trip to northern Italy in 1621–22.

Rossella Vodret and Claudio Strinati in The Genius of Rome, 1592–1623. Ed. Beverly Louise Brown. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 2001, pp. 106, 114 n. 53, fig. 35 (color) [Italian ed., "Il genio di Roma, 1592–1623," Milan, pp. 107, 115 n. 53, fig. 35 (color)], discuss it among paintings derived from Caravaggio's "Lute Player" (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; second version in a private collection), dating it about 1621–22; noting the figure's half-open mouth, state that a more accurate title would be "Singer Playing the Guitar".

Francesco Solinas in Maria de' Medici (1573–1642): una principessa fiorentina sul trono di Francia. Ed. Caterina Caneva and Francesco Solinas. Exh. cat., Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti, Florence. Livorno, 2005, pp. 305–7, no. III.44, ill. (color), dates it about 1619; states that it was restored at the time of the Rome/Biella exhibition of 2000–2002; discusses it in connection with Vouet's "Judith" (1621; private collection) and his portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi (1622; private collection).

Bernardina Sani. La fatica virtuosa di Ottavio Leoni. Turin, 2005, p. 157, states that a drawing by Leoni of about 1618 of a woman playing a guitar (British Museum, London; inv. 1895-9-15-661) depicts a model used by Vouet.

Erich Schleier in Simon Vouet (les années italiennes 1613/1627). Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes. Paris, 2008, p. 68, notes that there is no evidence to support Pedrocchi's (2000 "I segreti") hypothesis that this picture originally belonged to Cassiano dal Pozzo.

Caterina Volpi. "Simon Vouet (Parigi 1590–1649)." I caravaggeschi: percorsi e protagonisti. Ed. Alessandro Zuccari. Milan, 2010, vol. 2, p. 782, dates it to the 1620s.

Stéphane Loire. "Simon Vouet en Italie (1612–1627): Questions d'attributions et de datations." Simon Vouet en Italie. Ed. Olivier Bonfait and Hélène Rousteau-Chambon. Rennes, 2011, pp. 209, 231 nn. 119, 121, fig. 15 (color), accepts the attribution to Vouet and dates it about 1618–20, relating it to the artist's "Birth of the Virgin" (San Francesco a Ripa, Rome); finds unconvincing the suggestion (Pedrocchi 2000 "I segreti") that it may have been one of the female half-lengths recorded in the collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo.

Annick Lemoine in I bassifondi del Barocco: la Roma del vizio e della miseria. Ed. Francesca Cappelletti and Annick Lemoine. Exh. cat., Accademia di Francia a Roma - Villa Medici. Milan, 2014, p. 29, fig. 10 (color detail) [French ed., "Les Bas-fonds du baroque: La Rome du vice et de la misère"].

Francesco Solinas in I bassifondi del Barocco: la Roma del vizio e della miseria. Ed. Francesca Cappelletti and Annick Lemoine. Exh. cat., Accademia di Francia a Roma - Villa Medici. Milan, 2014, pp. 218–19, no. 35, ill. (color) [French ed., "Les Bas-fonds du baroque: La Rome du vice et de la misère"], dates it about 1618–20; identifies the instrument as a "chitarra d'amore," probably made in Naples; mentions the similar drawing by Leoni in the British Museum (see Sani 2005).

Yuri Primarosa. "I volti della musica: cantatrici, musici e buffoni alla corte di Roma nei ritratti di Ottavio Leoni." Storia dell'arte 141, no. 41 (2015), p. 63, dates the drawing by Leoni of a woman playing a guitar (see Sani 2005) about 1612–15 and calls it the "ideale antesignana" (ideal forerunner) to this picture.

Michael Fried. After Caravaggio. New Haven, 2016, pp. 64, 196 n. 21, fig. 53 (color), dates it about 1616–20.

Yuri Primarosa. Ottavio Leoni (1578–1630), eccellente miniator di ritratti: catalogo ragionato dei disegni e dei dipinti. Rome, 2017, p. 418, under no. 281.

Virginia Brilliant. Italian, Spanish, and French Paintings in the Ringling Museum of Art. New York, 2017, p. 329, under no. I.198, mentions it as "the sumptuous 'Woman Playing a Guitar'" by Vouet and dates it about 1621–22.

Stephan Wolohojian in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2016–2018." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 76 (Fall 2018), p. 33, ill. (color), in addition to noting the debt to Caravaggio, mentions that the rendering of the fabrics reveals the influence of Venetian painting.

Katharine Baetjer in European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, pp. 128, 233, ill. p. 129 (color).

Max Hollein in European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, p. 17, ill. p. 14 (color).

Maria Cristina Terzaghi in Fede Galizia, Orsola Maddalena Caccia, Artemisia Gentileschi: Same Time, Different Stories. Ed. Simone Amerigo. Exh. cat., Robilant + Voena, New York. Milan, 2023, p. 35, fig. 3 (color).

Maria Cristina Terzaghi in Rediscoveries: Five Centuries of European Painting. Ed. Helen Record. Exh. cat., Robilant + Voena. New York, 2025, p. 41, fig. 3 (color).

The carved and gilded reverse profile frame is of the period but was cut down to fit the picture (see figs. 2–4 above). It was put on the painting in 2017.