Jean-François GARNEREY (Paris, 1755 - Auteuil, 1837) The Music Lesson Parqueted panel Signed and dated: "Garnerey ft / year XIII On the back, a label : " La vie familiale, scène et portrait, 1944 / Galerie Charpentier Paris ". 40,7 x 34,5 cm Provenance: Marguerite Semail Collection (1903-1991), antique dealer; her daughter, Anita Semail (1929-2008), also an antique dealer; her after-death sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, March 30, 2009, no. 21. Exhibition: Les peintres de la vie familiale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1944, no. 60. Bibliography : - L. Hautecoeur, Les Peintres de la vie familiale, évolution d'un thème, Paris, 1945, reproduced P. 110. - M. Praz, Conversation pieces, A survey of the international group portrait in Europe and America, 1971, pp.80, 184, 193, reproduced Fig. 153, p. 192. - E. Foucart-Walter and P. Rosenberg, Le Chat et la palette, Paris, 1997, p. 168. Jean-François Garnerey was one of David's first students, having joined his studio in 1782. During the Revolution, he already exhibited portraits at his first salons in 1791 and 1793, and had effigies of politicians engraved, calling himself a "miniature painter". Under the Restoration, he painted some landscapes (Place de l'Étape in Orleans, 1819, Orleans Museum), genre scenes and subjects of troubadour taste. In his early years, Garnerey practiced the familiar scene, a compromise between portraiture, genre scenes and interior life, of which our painting offers a perfect example. The characters are observed with such tenderness that we are tempted to recognize the wife and daughter of the painter.