# The Drawing Lesson [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TRAVERSI, Gaspare]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 154 x 206 cm ## Commentary The Drawing Lesson c. 1750 Oil on canvas, 154 x 206 cm Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City To use the term coined in the eighteenth century, this is an excellent example of a domestic scene or "conversation piece". It contains the full range of types, and feelings, usually found in Traversi's work which uniquely captured Naples under Bourbon rule with a full range of ordinary people, aristocrats, and common folk. Traversi was always ready to turn his well-developed sense of humour laced with sarcastic bitterness on himself. Nevertheless the immediate, brilliant liveliness of the subjects should not make us forget the stylistic aspect of Traversi's work. He raised genre painting to a nearly monumental level, just as Giacomo Ceruti did in Lombardy. It is fairly difficult to pinpoint the date of these group portraits but it is likely that they were done around the middle of the century. ## Related artworks - [Old Man and a Child]() - [Reading a Letter]() - [The Card Players]() - [The Operation \(The Wound\)]() - [The Secret Letter]() - [The Sitting]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()