The Portrait of Bach That Was Lost In World War Two -
An Authentic "Alternative" to the Haussmann Image of Johann Sebastian Bach in his early 60s Pages at The Face Of Bach
Page 5
The Face Of Bach
This remarkable photograph is not a computer generated composite; the original of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, all that
remains of the portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that belonged to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel, is resting gently on the surface
of the original of the 1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach.
1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait, Courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey
Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, ca. 1733, Artist Unknown, Courtesy of the Weydenhammer Descendants
Photograph by Teri Noel Towe
©Teri Noel Towe, 2001, All Rights Reserved
The Portrait of Bach That Was Lost In World War Two
An Authentic "Alternative" to the Haussmann Image
of Johann Sebastian Bach in his early 60s
Page 1
Epilogue
The apparent loss of the Berlin Portrait seems all the more grievous now that so convincing a case can be made for its authenticity
not only as an accurate depiction of the face of Johann Sebastian Bach but also as a portrait from life that was commissioned by
one of his most important and influential patrons. The loss becomes all the more frustrating when one realizes how inexact and
uninformative the few written descriptions are. I have often wondered why Besseler, who knew and interviewed Gorke, did not
press him for more specifics. I am unaware, for instance, of any description of the colors of the garments or of the background.
And without the availablity of the original for study, so much has to be taken on faith, particularly with regard to the condition of the
painted surface of the canvass. For those of us who are optimists, however, the image, even in the less than satisfactory black and
white photograph, is a glorious survival. There will always be those, I am sure, who will remain steadfastly unconvinced, and those
who will argue that, like the miniature of Schütz that bamboozled Schünemann, the painting was a canny and cunning forgery. Well,
when I study the Berlin Portrait and the 1748 Haussmann Portrait side by side, I find myself saying that, if the Berlin Portrait is a
fake, it is a fake created by a clairvoyant. At the time the Berlin Portrait surfaced, the very existence of the 1748 Haussmann Portrait
was not known. That the anatomical details of the Berlin Portrait match those of the 1748 Haussmann Portrait so closely,
particularly with respect to the mouth and dentition is extraordinary and surely beyond the bounds of any forger to anticipate, based
on the materials then readily available for reference purposes. And then there is the presence of the 14 buttonholes to consider.
No, we cannot turn our backs on the Berlin Portrait. We cannot ignore it. We must accept it as an accurate depiction of the facial
features of Johann Sebastian Bach, and we must consider it to be a portrait from life, one almost certainly commissioned by one of
Bach's most devoted and generous patrons.
"Goldberg, please play me one of my variations!"
Teri Noel Towe
August 24, 2001
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Unless otherwise credited, all images of the Weydenhammer Portrait: Copyright, The Weydenhammer Descendants, 2000
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