Prelude to a concert

Gérard, Marguerite (1761-1837)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1810

Height:

56.5 cm  (22 1/4 in.)

Width:

47.7 cm  (18 3/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

By the early 1780s, Marguerite Gérard had produced many genre paintings featuring affluent women making music, taking lessons or, as here, rehearsing for informal concerts. The musical instrument shown in this painting is typical of European guitars from the 18th and 19th centuries. Smaller than the modern guitar, it has a flat bottom, a decorative rosette set into the sound hole, and only five strings (versus the now common six). ---National Museum of Women in the Arts website

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Guitar [3237] (five single strings, apparently attached to a tailpiece below the bridge)

Musical works

illegible music notation
open book of music

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

RIdIM record id

4404