The musical break

Oil on cardboard

Signed lower left

Dimensions: 73 x 76 cm

With frame: 93 x 96 cm

On the back, the painting bears an exhibition label with the number 382: "Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA".

Louis Legrand depicts here two young women in an interior listening to the piano. The painter chose to represent the third character, the pianist, only showing his back profile.

The interior is sober; a sofa, a chair, a small table and the pianist's revolving stool make up the decor.

The emphasis is on the characters and in particular on the young red-haired woman at the center of the composition. The light coming from the left shines on it and draws the viewer's gaze to her shimmering hair and shiny pearl necklace. Her friend on the right is drawn with a thick, vibrant line. Some very feminine details like the necklace, a ring, a bracelet, a small handbag, white gloves and the white shoes which appear under the pianist's seat come to decorate the scene. 

 Louis Legrand delivers here a work of daring composition, which is the prerogative of the great masters. Painted with sobriety and spontaneity, the artist suggests rather than describes; his line is both firm and vibrant.

He uses light and   plays with colored parts and others drawn without color. Although an economy of means characterizes the painting, the scene is alive and the artist takes us with subtlety   into the intimacy of this relaxing scene, offering us a moment suspended in time.

Louis Legrand was born in 1863 in Dijon. Painter, watercolorist, engraver and illustrator, he is a multifaceted artist. 

After training at the School of Fine Arts in Dijon, he went to Paris in 1884 and became a student of the brilliant and sulphurous Félicien Rops who introduced him to different techniques including engraving. 

The teacher appreciates the skills of his pupil. In a letter dated 1888 from Félicien Rops to Mr Roques, director of the weekly "  Le Courrier Français  ", he mentions "the precious and rare qualities, dominated by an extraordinary love of Louis Legrand's modeling. »He also writes« You can imagine that the idea did not occur to me to teach something to this fellow !. Legrand set about without help, as ducklings go to the pond, to make beautiful drawings which have attracted the attention of artists and amateurs ”

From 1902, the artist participated in the Salons des Beaux Arts in Paris, in the Universal Exhibition of 1900 where he was medalist.

he will also exhibit at the Samuel Bing gallery then in 1904 at the Georges Petit gallery. He was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1906.

In 1911, the Durand-Ruel gallery presented a major retrospective of his work.

Before Toulouse-Lautrec, he depicts the Parisian nightlife of the Belle Epoque, lively cafes, women, cancan dancers. The Moulin Rouge ball in Paris has long been the artist's studio.

The publisher and art collector Gustave Pellet publishes 300 prints for him and buys all his pastels from him. He also engraves erotic subjects for him. He is the painter of "gay eroticism".

It is present in many private collections.