B-12

Type:

Bach Painting

Title:

C.F.R. Liszewsky, 1772

Description:

Free imitation of a Haussmann picture by the Dessau court painter Liszewsky (1725-1794) who moved to Berlin in 1772, modernized in rococo style but given the obviously authentic background of the composer’s Leipzig studio (desk, writing materials, music paper, harpsichord, dressing-gown etc.). In general one of the most artistically valuable portraits of Bach.
For its history, origins, ownership, reliance on its model, theories about its identity, etc. cf. p. 399.

Measures:

Oil on canvas
Unknown format
Signed “CFR von Liszewsky pinxit 1772”. Inscribed in scrollwork on the original frame: “Johan Sebastian Bach / Der Teutschen gröster Harmonist, gebohren zu Eisenach 1685, gestorben in Leipzig 1750”.

Creator:

Painter: C.F.R. Liszewsky (1725-1794), Dessau court painter.
Year: 1772.

History:

Donated by Princess Anna Amalie of Prussia (1723-1787) to the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium in Berlin (later Templin), whence it disappeared in the evacuation of 1945, but fortunately it had been copied many times, though not in color.

Current Location:

Photography by:

Reproduced from an old archive photograph.

Comments:

Buy item at:

N/A

Source/Links: Bach-Dokumente IV (1979)
Contributor: Thomas Braatz (December 2007)