Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009814Attributes of Music
About the Artwork
A lute and flute rest on top of sheet music. This painting was intended to hang above a door, opposite still lifes that represented the other fine arts of painting and sculpture (the two related paintings are in the Musée du Louvre, Paris). Bonvin was part of the 19th-century movement known as Realism. Led by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), the Realist painters were interested in depicting the world that surrounded them, as well as the popular culture of their time.
Inscriptions
Signed upper right, in umber paint: F.s Bonvin / 1863
Provenance
1976: (Couturier sale, Hôtel Drouot, March 19, 1976 (lot 42), sold to Galerie Brame and Lorenceau) 1976: (Galerie Brame and Lorenceau, Paris, sold to Marianne Feilchenfeldt) 1976-1977: (Marianne Feilchenfeldt, Zürich, sold to Noah L. Butkin) 1977-1980: Noah L. Butkin [1918-1980], Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Muriel S. Butkin 1980-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). The Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-February 1, 1987). Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 14-June 11, 1989). Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Snite Museum, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (organizer) (September 2-December 2, 2012).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887)
- Date
- 1863
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 62.6 x 116 cm (24 5/8 x 45 11/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1980.233
More by François Bonvin in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009814
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