A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier

A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier is a mid 17th century painting by Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch the Younger. Done in oil on wood, the work depicts a young woman playing a theorbo while her lover looks on. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Description.
Ter Borch's painting portrays a scene in which a young woman plays a theorbo-lute (a stringed instrument) while her suitor sits nearby. The man is a cavalier, a 17th-century soldier, and he is seen to be sitting atop a cloth-covered table. His sword is laid flat to his left, while a songbook (a common lovers' gift during the time period) rests nearby. A watch, possibly representing temperance or the fleeting nature of the affair, lays near the other objects.