B-10

Type:

Bach Painting

Title:

Portrait, c1740 (?)

Description:

In 1956 Besseler (I, II) included it among his “Five Genuine Portraits”, after considering the notes in the catalogue “original condition” and “old wedge frame” and drawing his own conclusions from ophthalmological details and certain similarities in physiognomy to portraits B-06, B-07 and B-11, which are in any case themselves unauthenticated. The very different general impression given by this portrait compared with those of the Haussmann type is explained by the theory that Bach’s facial appearance, like Goethe’s, was subject to considerable change. The theory of this picture’s origins "Dresden - Count Keyserlingk" (cf. no. 476) is also speculative. A reproduction of the portrait in the pictorial volume »Jean-Sébastien Bach. L’œuvre et la vie. Les Libraires Associés« , (Paris 1963) p. 137, attributed to the «Bibliothèque Nationale, photo Josse-Lalance» is misleading, according to information from Bibliothèque Nationale Paris.

Measures:

Oil on canvas.
83 x 65 cm in original gold frame.
No artist’s signature, but with an old inscription “Joh.Seb. Bach”.

Creator:

Painter: Unknown
Year c1740 (?) (Bach-Dokumente); c1747 (TNT)

History:

Presumed destroyed during the hostilities in 1945, and only traceable through a pre-1941 stock catalogue of the Berlin art dealers Helmuth Meyer & Ernst, who used it as a frontispiece, measuring 18.3 x 13.5 cm. At the end of 1939 it was found by the Bach collector Manfred Gorke in a small Berlin antique-shop and evaluated, and in 1941 it was sold to a private collector in the Ruhr for 2,500 Reichsmarks after authentication by Georg Schünemann.

Current Location:

Photography by:

Reproduced from the above-named catalogue.

Comments:

Buy book at:

Amazon.de [Bach-Dokumente]

Source/Links: Bach-Dokumente: Bilddokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs: Bd 4 (Bärenreiter, 1979) | The Face of Bach
Contributor: Aryeh Oron & Thomas Braatz (December 2007 - January 2008)