©Henri Matisse - The Piano Lesson 1916

Henri Matisse - The Piano Lesson 1916
The Piano Lesson
1916 245x213cm oil/canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

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From the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA:
This composition shows the open living-room window of Matisse’s house at Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, with his son Pierre practicing the piano. A candle sits on the instrument, illuminating a triangle of lawn. In the bottom left corner is a representation of one of Matisse’s sculptures, Decorative Figure (1908), while the severe “teacher” in the opposite corner is actually a representation of the painting Woman on a High Stool (1914). Together they afford a contrast of sensuality and hard work and, reinforced by the metronome on the piano and the candle, suggest the passage of time.