The First Piano Lesson

Charles West Cope (1811 - 1890)

Geffrye, Museum of the Home

circa 1860

In this painting motherhood is presented in idealised form – the mother and baby are pristine and sit at a piano, a marker of status within the domestic sphere and a key indication of middle-class standing. The place of middle-class children within the home and attitudes of parents towards them is under-researched and a subject that the Geffrye hopes to open up with a major exhibition in the future. The painting modifies the stereotypical view that Victorian children were to be seen and not heard. Children have been under-represented in the Geffrye Museum's collection of Victorian paintings.

• Medium: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 34 x 34.5cm
• Art Fund Grant: £4215 ( Total: £11,250)
• ArtFunded in: 2008
• Vendor: Sotheby's

Provenance

JS Maas & Co, London; Sir David Scott, 1986; Sotheby's, 2008.

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