The Music Lesson

Description Longhi was a successful painter of upper-class life in Venice, and he specialized in stylish interiors. His scenes of the amusements of the wealthy often possess a touch of humor, sometimes mirroring the satires so popular in Venetian theater of the time. In this scene, an elderly music teacher takes advantage of the interruption caused by servants to squeeze the hand of his young pupil in front of the pianoforte. The little dog, a traditional symbol of faithfulness, with its raised paw, mirrors his gesture, almost as a parody of the old man's furtive expression of desire. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 452, p. 564.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
12/03/1965	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation; other
2/01/1986	Treatment	loss compensation; coated
8/01/1992	Treatment	repaired
11/01/1993	Treatment	examined for loan; cleaned; repaired; loss compensation; other
12/01/1993	Treatment	cleaned; mounted

Exhibitions

• Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the Emergence of Genre Painting in Italy. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. 1986.
• Pietro Longhi. Museo Correr, Venice. 1993-1994.
• Tiepolo Unveiled: The Restoration of a Masterpiece. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1996.
• Venice in Canaletto's Age. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 2009-2010.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore, prior to 1909 [mode of acquisition unknown] [in Walters catalogues as Voltaire chez la Princesse de Condé, French School, eighteenth century]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, before 1909