Attributes of Music (1863): Art, History and Details

Attributes of Music (1863) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Attributes of Music
• Date: 1863
• Creator attribution: François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: Unframed: 62.6 x 116 cm (24 5/8 x 45 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1980.233

Collection credit

Bequest of Noah L. Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Estate of Noah L. Butkin, Bequests to Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Murel S. Butkin. Estates, Gifts, and Funds, Series 1, Box 2:14. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Marianne Feilchenfeldt, letter to Sherman Lee, July 30, 1977, in CMA curatorial file.
• Marianne Feilchenfeldt, invoice, Sept. 5, 1977, in CMA curatorial file.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.