9 Famous Artworks Featuring a Piano
July 22, 2025 by Sophie
The piano has long been a muse for painters. From 19th-century bourgeois salons to Cubist deconstructions and collaged memories of domestic life, this instrument has found itself at the center of artistic exploration for reasons that go far beyond music. Its iconic silhouette, cultural symbolism, and emotional connection have allowed painters to render not just what we hear, but who we are when we perform, listen, and recollect.
Let's take a look at nine remarkable works that feature the piano in all a variety of forms — from Henri Matisse’s abstracted wartime meditation The Piano Lesson to Norman Rockwell’s charming Americana illustration Piano Tuner, from James Whistler’s tonal domesticity to the bold geometry of Braque and Picasso’s Cubist experiments. Each of these artworks offers a window into how the piano serves not just as a musical instrument, but as a metaphor, reflecting not just the sitter or musician, but the cultural and psychological climate in which the work was created.
James McNeill Whistler – At the Piano
Source: Wikimedia
James McNeill Whistler – At the Piano
1858–59
Realism / Tonalism
Location: Taft Museum of Art (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Often considered Whistler's first major work. At the Piano depicts his niece and sister in a carefully composed domestic space. A picture of familial intimacy with the piano at its centre. An emblem of ritual, memory, and legacy.
Édouard Manet – The Piano
Source: Wikipedia
Édouard Manet – The Piano
1868
Impressionism
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris
An intimate moment of domestic leisure, telegraphing the piano’s role in modern bourgeois life. Rendered with characteristic looseness, the painting nods to the musical culture of Parisian salons.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Young Girls at the Piano
Source: Wikimedia
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Young Girls at the Piano
1892
Impressionism
Location: Musée d'Orsay / The Met
Commissioned by the French government. A salutation to youth and culture bursting with warmth. The piano here is the focus of youthful learning, sisterhood, and the gentle rhythms of bourgeois life.
Vilhelm Hammershøi – Interior with Woman at the Piano
Source: Wikipedia
Vilhelm Hammershøi – Interior with Woman at the Piano
1901
Danish Symbolism / Minimalist Realism
Location: Various collections
A portrait of solitude and serenity in a restrained palette. The piano is charged with meditative, emotion in an otherwise silent room.
Georges Braque – Piano and Mandola
Source: georgesbraque.org
Georges Braque – Piano and Mandola
1909 - 1910
Analytic Cubism
Location: Various collections
An exploding crystalline form where black-and-white piano keys appear disembodied. Sheets of music and the mandola are visually fragmented. All is abstracted and reshaped through Cubist structure.
Henri Matisse – The Piano Lesson
Source: Moma
Henri Matisse – The Piano Lesson
1916
Fauvism → Post-Fauvism / Semi-Cubist
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York
A wartime masterpiece where structure meets symbolism. The tension between creative freedom and structured learning is rendered in geometric form and stark colour palette.
Pablo Picasso – Three Musicians
Source: Wikipedia
Pablo Picasso – Three Musicians
1921
Cubism
Location: MoMA, New York / Philadelphia Museum of Art
A jigsaw puzzle of sound and character in muted palette. The piano is fractured and reassembled into bold shapes with music visualized as modernist collage.
Norman Rockwell – Piano Tuner
Source: Norman Rockwell Museum
Norman Rockwell – Piano Tuner
1947
American Realism / Illustration
Location: Saturday Evening Post cover
Narrative charm and technical fancy. Rockwell captures a slice of mid-century Americana with humor and heart. The piano is an everyday symbol of care, craft, and community.
Romare Bearden – The Piano Lesson
Source: https://www.pafa.org
Romare Bearden – The Piano Lesson
1983
African American Modernism / Collage
Location: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
A powerful cultural reinterpretation of Matisse’s painting. Collage layers memory, music, and African-American identity. Here the piano becomes a bridge between generations a symbol of creativity and ancestral knowledge.
