Large composition of three brothers playing music: the eldest, in the centre of the canvas in front of a piano painted at an angle on the right of the canvas, sitting on a stool, is deciphering a score placed on his lap; the two younger brothers are looking in the same direction: one, on the left of the trio, is holding a violin and the other, on the right of the pianist, placed in the axis of the keyboard, is looking at the pianist’s left hand on top of the piano.

A chequered floor of red and black tiles illuminated by a light from the front contributes, together with the perspective of the piano, to giving depth to the scene. The outline of a canvas in the background completes the composition.

Through the star-shaped distribution of the hands, the convergence of the lowered gazes, and the rectilinear geometry of the floor, the piano and the walls, the work frames our gaze and calls upon our concentration, like that of the musicians, to hear the chords played by the pianist resonate.

Like theatre and literature, the art of music nourishes the work of Germaine Lacaze: violin, clarinet, piano appear in numerous paintings, watercolours or drawings and several landscape compositions have been titled by the artist in homage to Vivaldi, Couperin and Scarlatti.

Painted in the country house of Villeneuve-le-Comte in the summer of 1973, the models are the three sons of the artist’s first cousin, Paulette Le Bitoux, née Lacaze, from right to left, Philippe, Jean and Michel.