Johann Sebastian Bach

Haussmann, Elias Gottlob (1695-1774)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1746
Height:
78.0 cm  (30 11/16 in.)
Width:
61.0 cm  (24 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas
Place of creation:
Leipzig
School:
German

    Item location

  • Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig
    [Museum inv. no.: XXII/48]

Description

Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1746. The portrait, formerly in the St. Thomas school in Leipzig, now in Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, "is perhaps the one that Bach had painted when he joined the Mizler Society, the statutes of which ordained that a new member must contribute 'his portrait well painted on canvas' to the library of the society; for in this portrait Bach holds in his hand the 'Canon triplex a 6 voc.' which he submitted to the society as his qualifying work. As Bach joined the society in the summer of 1747, this portrait would depict him in his latest years" (Albert Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, trans. Ernest Newman (London: A. & C. Black, 1923), 161).

People as subjects

Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750) (Composer portrait)

Musical works

Bach, Johann Sebastian -- Canon triplex à 6, BWV 1076legible music notationRISM link 1

Image URLs

image link 1
Bachhaus Eisenach display of a 1910 copy of the Haussmann portrait of J. S. Bach alongside unauthenticated portraits by Johann Ernst Rentsch (left) and Johann Jacob Ihle (right). Wikimedia Commons image.
image link 2
Wikimedia Commons image.

Bibliographic references

His, Wilhelm. Anatomische Forschungen über Johann Sebastian Bach's Gebeine und Antlitz nebst Bemerkungen über dessen Bilder (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1895).

Schweitzer, Albert. J. S. Bach, trans. Ernest Newman (London: A. & C. Black, 1923), 161.

Gardiner, John Eliot. Bach: Music in the castle of heaven (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013) 1, 545-550, plate 18. RILM 2013-08882.

RIdIM record id

1774