The Lute Player

The Lute Player exemplifies Sorgh's approach to fashionable imagery in his later years. He depicts a young dandy with a double-necked lute serenading the unimpressed recipient of his affections in a gated veranda before an urban setting. The painting is obviously replete with references to love and courtship. Playing musical instruments was long considered indispensable to fostering Eros and in this sense, Sorgh's foppish, lute player is entirely conventional.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes): Franz Schubert: An die Laute (To the Lute) D 905