Young Girls at the Piano
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste.
Oil on canvas. 116.5x89.5 cm
France. 1892
Source of Entry: formerly in the collection of Otto Krebs, Holzdorf.
Transferred from Germany after World War II

When the Minister of Fine Arts of France, Henri Roujon, consented to have a Renoir permanently displayed in the Musée de Luxembourg, Renoir chose the motif in his Music Lesson, the small canvas painted in 1889. Music and the beauty of the young women combined in one composition symbolizing harmony - in such an idea there could be nothing unacceptable to the Luxembourg. Renoir painted a series consisting of six works, four are fully resolved, while the present one is the least finished canvas in the group. Although it seems not only unfinished but barely begun, Renoir put his signature to it and, consequently, considered it completed. Probably he feared that by continuing to work he would make the painting heavier and less charming. In any case, Renoir made an effort to keep the image from becoming too solidly three-dimensional or too material, and sought an effect more like that of a watercolour. The coloration of the picture is determined by the balance of cool and warm tones: the standing girl is a brunette and wears a reddish-coloured dress, while the seated girl is a blond and wears a white dress.