Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011450Woman at the Spinet
About the Artwork
The subject of the woman at the piano was a recurrent theme in Bonvin’s oeuvre. The pianist depicted here was likely Céline Prunaire, a 21-year-old musician who married the much older artist in 1860. Although the meticulously rendered composition celebrates the grace and propriety of the young woman, the happiness of the couple’s union was fleeting. Prunaire left the artist after fewer than three years, never to return. The pink carnation at her feet suggests a note of foreboding to the image, perhaps intended to allude to the ephemeral nature of music and sentimental bonds.
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, lower left, black chalk: F. Bonvin 1860
Provenance
P&D Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London, "French Drawings: Post Neo-Classicism," Spring Exhibition 1975 (lot #25, repr.); Williams & Son, London, December 11, 1975.
Exhibition history
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). Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).
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
- 1860
- Medium
- fabricated black chalk with touches of brown and red chalk and stumping
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 42 x 30.5 cm (16 9/16 x 12 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Accession no.
- 2010.166
More by François Bonvin in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011450
Powered by Art Trackers