Music Lesson

Music within art has long been a popular choice for artists. As a key element of European culture, going back many centuries, it has been included in a variety of ways. For example, it can provide a touching scene of pupil being taught by master as in this case. Alternatively, it could be part of a celebration or festival, with Bruegel the Elder using it to depict scenes of peasant life in Flemish life. Or how about Picasso's Three Musicians in which he made use of his Cubist style, as did Georges Braque.

This painting, titled Music Lesson, features a mother and daughter together. The young girl is attempting to learn how to play what looks like an early form of guitar. This sets an atmosphere of a domestic scene of family life, although the artist would have constructed this composition carefully himself and requested particular postures from the two models. Their informal dressing suggests that they may even have been placed within a bedroom setting.