Music Lesson

A pale wooden guitar and an open book of music stand out against two darkly dressed figures. One person holds the instrument; the other follows a line on the page. The objects suggest a shared activity, yet the two faces turn outward, leaving their exchange difficult to read. Édouard Manet painted Music Lesson in 1870. The large canvas now belongs to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.^[1]

The Guitar and the Open Score

The guitar occupies a broad, bright area on the left. Its rounded body rests across the man’s thighs, while the neck rises diagonally towards the space between the two heads. The curve of the instrument and the long straight neck give the composition two different directions: a spreading shape close to the lap and a narrow line pointing upwards.

The man’s hands connect these parts. His right hand meets the strings near the dark sound hole; his left holds the neck. White at the wrist separates the playing hand from the darker sleeve. Against his jacket, the instrument’s pale wood becomes particularly prominent, drawing attention to the physical action that the pose implies.

At the right, the woman’s exposed arms lead down towards the open score. One hand rests beside the upper pages, while the other points into the book. The paper forms an uneven white shape across her lap, with sloping edges that answer the diagonal of the guitar. These two objects bring a strong light into the lower centre of the picture.

The faces remain separate from that busy arrangement of hands and objects. Neither sitter bends closely over the music. Their relatively upright heads and outward looks make the scene feel held in place, despite the activity suggested by the instrument. The painting allows the viewer to notice this stillness while imagining the sound that might connect the pair.

Astruc and the Unnamed Woman

The guitarist is identified as Zacharie Astruc, Manet’s friend and a figure active in poetry, criticism, music and the visual arts. The catalogue raisonné by Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein places the painting’s execution in Manet’s rue Guyot studio in 1870. It also records a separate study for the female figure, while leaving her identity uncertain.^[2]

An exhibition guide published for the 2013 Manet exhibition in Venice identifies the companion as Astruc’s wife.^[3] Miranda Wallace’s 2021 museum catalogue essay, however, still describes her as unidentified.^[4] The wife identification therefore remains a possibility rather than a secure name for the sitter. The scene’s apparent familiarity does not settle the relationship between these two people.

There is also a difference between identifying a model and identifying a role. Writing in 1906, Théodore Duret described Astruc as a music teacher accompanying a young woman who sings while following the score.^[5] This gives the title a plausible explanation, with the guitar supporting the voice. It is Duret’s interpretation of the represented activity, rather than a record of a particular lesson.

The pointing finger draws attention to the music. On its own, it does not tell us who has greater musical experience, whether a correction is being made, or which passage is being played. The woman’s hand can be read as maintaining her place in the score. Manet gives the gesture enough clarity to invite that reading without supplying an elaborate story around it.

A Dark Interior and Spanish Interests

The setting reveals relatively little about the room. Dark vertical divisions appear behind the figures, but there is no wide view into an adjoining space. A strip of patterned rug fills the lower left, while green-blue upholstery appears between and beside the bodies. These limited furnishings keep attention close to the pair.

The man’s light grey trousers form two large shapes below the guitar. Their open angle contrasts with the broad, continuous sweep of the woman’s skirt. Small pale passages at her neckline and sleeves distinguish her upper body from the surrounding dark fabric. The book, arms and face emerge from a much larger mass of dark colour.

Wallace connects the woman’s black lace dress and hair ornament with Spanish fashion, and describes the richly patterned rug through a Moorish association.^[4] This reading places the interior within Manet’s wider interest in Spanish subjects. The guitar makes that connection especially visible, although the objects do not establish the woman’s nationality or the room’s location.

Astruc shared Manet’s enthusiasm for Spain. The Kunsthalle Bremen’s account of their friendship explains that he recommended a detailed itinerary for Manet’s 1865 journey, which the painter followed in part.^[6] The instrument here suits that shared interest while presenting Astruc as someone involved in making music. For another treatment of the guitar and a posed performer, Manet’s earlier The Spanish Singer offers a useful contrast.

Astruc beside Manet in Fantin-Latour’s Studio

Astruc also appears facing Manet in Henri Fantin-Latour’s A Studio at Les Batignolles, painted in 1870 and now in the Musée d’Orsay. There Manet sits at an easel with palette and brush, while Astruc occupies a chair opposite him. Behind them stand other members of their artistic circle, including Renoir, Zola, Bazille and Monet. The group portrait was exhibited at the same year’s Salon.^[7]

The two pictures give Astruc different positions within a shared culture. Manet shows him holding an instrument, his hands engaged in producing music. Fantin-Latour makes him the seated companion of a painter at work. The arrangement brings the critic and artist into close relation through their opposing chairs and the space of the easel.

Fantin-Latour gives his group more objects and people than Manet includes in Music Lesson. Easel uprights, a large framed picture and the standing men divide the room into smaller areas. A pale statuette and a decorated vessel sit at the left. The Musée d’Orsay interprets the Minerva figure as a sign of respect for classical tradition, and the vessel as an expression of the group’s interest in Japanese art.^[7]

The figures’ restrained dress and sober poses are also central to the museum’s account: Fantin-Latour presents the controversial young artists as serious, respectable people.^[7] Looking back at Music Lesson, the simpler arrangement becomes more striking. Its two figures have a greater area of darkness around them, and the guitar and score carry much of the information about their activity. Astruc’s recognisable presence connects the intimate musical pairing with the larger professional gathering.

Music Lesson at the Salon of 1870

Manet exhibited Music Lesson at the 1870 Salon alongside his portrait of Eva Gonzalès.^[5] The pairing placed two kinds of artistic activity before the public: music making in one picture and painting in the other. Both compositions depend on a figure holding the tools of an art, with a larger dark or light clothing shape surrounding the action.

Accounts of the response to Music Lesson differ in emphasis. The Venice exhibition guide describes severe ridicule in the press.^[3] Duret’s later account instead stresses a cold, contemptuous reception, observing that this picture did not provoke the storm that had greeted The Balcony at the previous Salon. He says the portrait of Gonzalès attracted the greater attention that year.^[5]

From Manet’s Studio to Boston

Durand-Ruel bought Music Lesson at Manet’s estate sale in February 1884. The painting later belonged to Henri Rouart before entering the stock of M. Knoedler and Co.^[1]

The Museum of Fine Arts records Knoedler selling it to Charles Deering in November 1916. After passing by descent, it entered the museum in 1969 as an anonymous Centennial gift in Deering’s memory.^[1]