Like most Impressionists, Renoir was a music lover and often depicted young girls at the piano. This subject derives from the gatherings of musicians painted in the 17th and 18th centuries, and perhaps also from the works of his contemporaries Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Edouard Manet (1832-1883), and Edgard Degas (1834-1917). Renoir thus revisits a traditional theme, combining the geometric lines of the upright piano with the undulating movements of the young girls.
