The Music Lesson, William Alexander Griffith

Exhibition Label:
"From the Prairie to Paris and Back Again: The Art of William A. Griffith", (Nov 1996) Susan Earle
The Music Lesson is a significant early work by an artist who was important to the KU community. Born in Lawrence, Kansas, Griffith studied at the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1890s. He painted this work in Emporia, Kansas, during the summer or fall of 1892.

This image contains several signs of a cultured life. A couple is playing a duet (it is unclear who is teaching whom). The man, who is the artist's brother, James Hunt Griffith, appears to have just finished a game of tennis before sitting down to his mandolin. The woman plays a guitar, having marked her place in the book she was reading with a handkerchief. A framed work of art on the wall shows baby angels who seem to enjoy the music while they oversee this pleasant union of culture and leisure.

Griffith had several connections to The University of Kansas. After organizing a painting and drawing department here in 1899, he taught art at KU for twenty years and inspired many students. Griffith was also largely responsible for the establishment of an art museum on campus. In addition, he designed many important homes in Lawrence.

To see additional works by Griffith and learn more about his life, please visit the Twentieth-Century Gallery upstairs on the fourth floor.