Although the rich flourishing of lute music in the Dutch Republic seems to have come to an end after 1630, at least if we go by the publications of the work of famous composers, the instrument certainly did not disappear altogether. The lute remained one of the most represented instruments in paintings and people kept on playing it. We know this from the correspondence of Constantijn Huygens, who remained enamoured with the instrument right up to his death in 1687. Many lutenists figure in his letters, most of them foreign, professional musicians, but also some Dutch amateurs. In 1670 Huygens sent a few lute pieces to Johanne le Gillon, Lady of Beverning (The Hague), with a note saying that if they were too easy he could also supply more difficult pieces. He went on to say that he would be happy to come round and tell her how the pieces should be performed and what tempo they needed. In 1678 he corresponded with Ursula Philipotta van Raesveld, Lady of Amerongen (1643-1721), who lived in Utrecht, good-humouredly (and perhaps ambiguously?) joking that he didn't speak ill of her lute, just how it was strung. In 1680 he sent her a piece of music he had composed, presumably for the lute, with not too many notes; if she so wished, he would make a more embellished version for her.

It is striking that most amateur lutenists were women. Another correspondent, abroad this time, was Judith Killigrew, who in Huygens’ eyes was a competent player of the lute, guitar and theorbo, thanks to the ‘strength and accuracy of her hands’. She effortlessly played the more difficult pieces written by Gaultier, Dufaut and others, besides ‘trifles’ by Huygens. He did indeed send her some music, pieces for theorbo in 1671 for instance, and hoped to get pieces by the Frenchman Aymant in return, especially recent ones. Another lute-playing female was Mrs Seullin, or Anna Catharina Römer, of Hamburg, who is mentioned in a letter from 1680 addressed to a male amateur lutenist in Hamburg, Michael Döring, a medical doctor by profession.

We also continue to see lutes in paintings when people are portrayed with them – in a different context than that of the many anonymous lutenists in genre paintings.