Ebony and Ivory

September is National Piano Month, a time to celebrate America's most popular instrument and the more than 20 million people who play it.

Music evokes emotions and memories, so it is not surprising that many visual artists find inspiration in its moods and rhythms. Improvisation captures this connection between art and music.

Childe Hassam's portrait of a friend glows with summertime light and luscious impressionist surfaces. The woman plays the piano for an audience of flowers, their individual vases arranged in artful informality, like her leisurely improvisation at the keyboard. She also shares this private moment with the colonial portrait of an ancestor at the harp, Hassam's subtle suggestion of a duet between past and present.

The 300-year history of the piano is observed in a virtual exhibit, Piano 300, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Source: Richard Murray. The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Childe Hassam, 1859–1935, Improvisation, 1899, oil, 30 x 33 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.