Peek into a 17th-Century Drawing Lesson
What the artist is teaching his students...and us
The Drawing Lesson, about 1665, Jan Steen. Oil on panel, 19 3/8 × 16 1/4 in. Getty Museum
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In Jan Steen's The Drawing Lesson, an artist corrects a drawing made by one of his pupils. But the lesson doesn't stop there.
The painting itself offers subtle messages about the nobility of the art of painting, and the importance of passing its techniques to the next generation, both amateurs and future professionals.
In the first season of Getty's Close Looking video series, Getty curators explore the details of artworks they cherish. For this installment, the Getty Museum's curator of paintings, Anne Woollett, points out some details you may have missed in the 17th-century Dutch work. For example, did you know that the girl in the painting may also be a personification of the art of painting, and did you recognize the way the light coming in through the window filters across the entire room?
"It gives me great joy to see how fabulously and expressively Steen has rendered all the different special details of the painting," Woollett says.
Watch the video to learn more about this celebrated painting.
Get an insider's view of more works of art in Getty's Close Looking series, in which art experts and enthusiasts around Getty share some of their favorite works of art.
