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Source Description
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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
168335
label
Woman at the Spinet
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
168335
contentType
drawing
title
Woman at the Spinet
description
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.
date
1860
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80074067
creators
1562
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 42 x 30.5 cm (16 9/16 x 12 in.)
cul
France, 19th century
accession
2010.166
Source extras
tec
fabricated black chalk with touches of brown and red chalk and stumping
tombstone
Woman at the Spinet, 1860. François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887). Fabricated black chalk with touches of brown and red chalk and stumping ; sheet: 42 x 30.5 cm (16 9/16 x 12 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2010.166
supportMaterials
description
tan laid paper
collection
DR - French
inscriptions
inscription
Signed and dated, lower left, black chalk: F. Bonvin 1860
citations
citation
Snite Museum of Art, and Gabriel P. Weisberg.<em> Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art</em>. 2012.
page_number
ex. cat. no. 13, p. 56-58
creditline
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:39:33.500000
sourceId
168335
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - French
med
fabricated black chalk with touches of brown and red chalk and stumping
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
96155377264c9616