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The Musicale
Accession # 51.211
Artist Stacy Tolman
Title The Musicale
Date 1887
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 36 1/4 x 46 in. (92 x 116.9 cm) frame: 46 1/8 x 56 x 3 3/4 in. (117.2 x 142.2 x 9.5 cm)
Signed Signed lower left (traced over weaker signature): "Stacy Tolman / 1887"
Credit Line Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Location Visible Storage: Case 16, Screen N (Paintings)

Curatorial Remarks: “Musicales,” social evenings featuring music making, and their depiction in painting were exceedingly popular during the late nineteenth century among the upper classes, interested in demonstrating their cultivation and dedication to an artistic lifestyle. Departing from the typical parlor setting, Stacy Tolman relocated the musicale to the artist’s studio, lending the scene a bohemian ambiance. He also pictured himself as the violinist, evoking classical comparisons between music and visual art. The pale green palms and parasol hanging at the upper left may be a nod to late nineteenth-century Japanism, a fascination with Asian art that influenced the Aesthetic Movement.