Home Scene

Thomas Eakins painted several works with music-related themes during his career. In Home Scene, his older sister Margaret sits at the piano, and a young Caroline lies on the floor, studiously writing on a slate tablet. The prominent placement of the piano reflects the instrument’s importance in middle-class homes in the late nineteenth century, when piano lessons were pursued for cultural refinement and self-improvement. Eakins’s dark and somber composition conveys a sense of stillness and introspection rather than the narrative typical of genre painting.