A seated figure holding a stringed instrument is depicted in The Musician, painted in 1914 by Louis Marcoussis using oil on canvas. The composition is structured with overlapping geometric planes and intersecting lines, typical of early twentieth-century Cubism. The palette is dominated by muted blues, greys, and browns, with areas of wood grain and a few brighter accents, such as the orange and yellow on the sheet music labeled "MALVINA VALSE." The figure’s face and hands are fragmented, and surrounding objects, including a vase and a keyboard instrument, are rendered in a similarly faceted manner. Cubist works like this one, created in Paris in the years before the First World War, often explored musical themes and the deconstruction of form.

Louis Marcoussis belonged to the Cubist circle of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris. The Musician dates from a period when Marcoussis was developing his mature style, characterized by the analytical breakdown of objects and figures. The painting is signed and dated by the artist in the lower left corner, and it belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.