Cliff Eisen authenticates newly-discovered Mozart portrait
Print versionAccording to the long-standing oral tradition of the family descendants of Johann Lorenz, Leopold Mozart’s close friend, banker and for a while landlord in Salzburg, a portrait of Mozart, showing the composer in profile and wearing his favourite red jacket, was executed in 1783 by a well-known court painter as a gift to Mozart in return for his composition of some music for the painter’s family. A portrait in oils purchased from the Hagenauers (a connection between the picture and the Hagenuaer family was first made by Daniel N. Lesson of Los Altos, California) and purported to be Mozart not only corresponds to the family’s description – the sitter is shown in profile and wears a red jacket – but its details, and the details of its history, correspond well with the evidence of Mozart’s letters.
In a letter of 28 September 1782 Mozart wrote to his patroness Baroness Martha Elisabeth von Waldstätten: ‘As for the beautiful red coat that tickles my fancy so dreadfully, I’d be grateful if you could let me know where I can get it and how much it costs, as I’ve forgotten – I was so taken by its beauty that I didn’t notice the price. – I really must have a coat like that, as it’s worth it just for the buttons that I’ve been hankering after for some time; – I saw them once, at Brandau’s button factory opposite the Café Milani on the Kohlmarkt, when I was choosing buttons for a suit. – They’re mother-of-pearl with some white stones round the edge and a beautiful yellow stone in the centre. – I’d like to have everything that’s good, genuine and beautiful’ (Wilhelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch and Joseph-Heinz Eibl, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Kassel, 1962-1975), volume 3, 232-3). And on 2 October 1782 he wrote: ‘I committed a terrible blunder yesterday! – I kept thinking that I had something more to say – only I couldn’t get it out of my stupid skull! and it was to thank your Grace for having immediately taken so much trouble over the beautiful coat – and for your Grace’s goodness in promising me one like it – but it never occurred to me; which is usually the case with me; – I often regret that I did not study architecture instead of music, for I have often heard it said that the best architects are those to whom nothing ever occurs’ (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 3, 233-4).
By the same token, a letter of 3 November 1781 documents Mozart’s composition of a work for the family of one of the Viennese court painters: ‘At 11 o’clock at night I was presented with a Nachtmusik for 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons – and of my own composition too. – I wrote it for St. Theres’a Day – for Frau von Hickel’s sister, the sister in law of Herr von Hickel (court painter); it was performed for the first time at [her] house’ (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 3, 165). The work described here is the first version of the serenade for winds K375, the sister of ‘fr: v: Hickl’ was one Therese Wutka or Witka, and her brother-in-law, explicitly identified by Mozart, was Joseph Hickel (1736-1807), painter to the imperial court from 1776. Hickel, who had studied for about ten years at the Viennese Akademie der Bildenden Künste and was commissioned by Empress Maria Theresia in 1768 to travel to Italy to paint portraits of the nobility there, was appointed deputy head of the Vienna Gemäldegalerie in 1772. One of the most sought-after painters in Vienna, he may have painted more than 3000 portraits, including members of the Austrian imperial family, members of the nobility and middle classes and - what is perhaps most significant in this context - actors at the Hofburg theatre, including Mozart’s brother-in-law Joseph Lange (see Otto Erich Deutsch, ‘Die Ehrengalerie des alten Burgtheaters’, Studien aus Wien. Neue Folge (Wiener Schriften 27). From not later than 1784, Mozart and Hickel were also fellow Masons, although they did not belong to the same lodge (for some mention of Hickel’s Masonic activities, see Hans-Josef Irmen and Schuler, Die Wiener Freimaurerlogen 1786-1793. Die Protokolle der Loge "Zur Wahrheit" (1785-1787) und die Mitgliederverzeichnisse der übrigen Wiener Logen (1786-1793) (Zülpich, 1998), 114-115 and 120-121).
If there is some uncertainty about the portrait, it concerns when and how it made its way to Salzburg. Even the Hagenauer family testimony is equivocal on this point. According to one version, Leopold Mozart brought the portrait back to Salzburg with him after visiting Wolfgang in Vienna in 1785. According to a second version, however, Mozart sent it to Salzburg in 1783. The circumstantial evidence favours 1783. On 3 April of that year Mozart wrote to his father: ‘Here is the Munich opera and two copies of my sonatas! – the promised variations will be sent at the next opportunity, for the copyist was unable to finish them. Two portraits will follow as well; – I only hope that you will be satisfied with them; both seem to me equally good, and everyone who has seen them is of the same opinion (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 3, 262-3). And Nannerl Mozart also wrote of a 1783 portrait in profile, in a letter to the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf & Härtel of 4 January 1804: ‘In 1783 he sent me his portrait from Vienna, very small, in pastel, I would have had a copy made but because it is in profile, this painter would not be able to do it en face and to guarantee that it would be a perfect likeness. If you like, however, I will speak with other painters, whether they might do such a thing, and approximately how much it would cost’ (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 4, 437). The pastel described by Nannerl cannot be the portrait of Mozart in his red coat, which is painted in oils. But it is possible - since Nannerl also speaks of copies - that the two pictures represent different versions, in different media, of the same portrait. As her letter makes clear, it was not uncommon at the time for portraits to be reproduced, and not always in the same size or even the same medium.
In any event, uncertainties about how and when the portrait traveled to Salzburg do not detract from the larger picture (no pun intended). The evidence of the Hagenauer family’s oral traditions, together with the details of the portrait itself and the evidence of Mozart’s letters, all suggest that what has been discovered is a previously unknown portrait of Mozart, probably executed in 1783 by the Viennese court artist Joseph Hickel.
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In a letter of 28 September 1782 Mozart wrote to his patroness Baroness Martha Elisabeth von Waldstätten: ‘As for the beautiful red coat that tickles my fancy so dreadfully, I’d be grateful if you could let me know where I can get it and how much it costs, as I’ve forgotten – I was so taken by its beauty that I didn’t notice the price. – I really must have a coat like that, as it’s worth it just for the buttons that I’ve been hankering after for some time; – I saw them once, at Brandau’s button factory opposite the Café Milani on the Kohlmarkt, when I was choosing buttons for a suit. – They’re mother-of-pearl with some white stones round the edge and a beautiful yellow stone in the centre. – I’d like to have everything that’s good, genuine and beautiful’ (Wilhelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch and Joseph-Heinz Eibl, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Kassel, 1962-1975), volume 3, 232-3). And on 2 October 1782 he wrote: ‘I committed a terrible blunder yesterday! – I kept thinking that I had something more to say – only I couldn’t get it out of my stupid skull! and it was to thank your Grace for having immediately taken so much trouble over the beautiful coat – and for your Grace’s goodness in promising me one like it – but it never occurred to me; which is usually the case with me; – I often regret that I did not study architecture instead of music, for I have often heard it said that the best architects are those to whom nothing ever occurs’ (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 3, 233-4).
By the same token, a letter of 3 November 1781 documents Mozart’s composition of a work for the family of one of the Viennese court painters: ‘At 11 o’clock at night I was presented with a Nachtmusik for 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons – and of my own composition too. – I wrote it for St. Theres’a Day – for Frau von Hickel’s sister, the sister in law of Herr von Hickel (court painter); it was performed for the first time at [her] house’ (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 3, 165). The work described here is the first version of the serenade for winds K375, the sister of ‘fr: v: Hickl’ was one Therese Wutka or Witka, and her brother-in-law, explicitly identified by Mozart, was Joseph Hickel (1736-1807), painter to the imperial court from 1776. Hickel, who had studied for about ten years at the Viennese Akademie der Bildenden Künste and was commissioned by Empress Maria Theresia in 1768 to travel to Italy to paint portraits of the nobility there, was appointed deputy head of the Vienna Gemäldegalerie in 1772. One of the most sought-after painters in Vienna, he may have painted more than 3000 portraits, including members of the Austrian imperial family, members of the nobility and middle classes and - what is perhaps most significant in this context - actors at the Hofburg theatre, including Mozart’s brother-in-law Joseph Lange (see Otto Erich Deutsch, ‘Die Ehrengalerie des alten Burgtheaters’, Studien aus Wien. Neue Folge (Wiener Schriften 27). From not later than 1784, Mozart and Hickel were also fellow Masons, although they did not belong to the same lodge (for some mention of Hickel’s Masonic activities, see Hans-Josef Irmen and Schuler, Die Wiener Freimaurerlogen 1786-1793. Die Protokolle der Loge "Zur Wahrheit" (1785-1787) und die Mitgliederverzeichnisse der übrigen Wiener Logen (1786-1793) (Zülpich, 1998), 114-115 and 120-121).
If there is some uncertainty about the portrait, it concerns when and how it made its way to Salzburg. Even the Hagenauer family testimony is equivocal on this point. According to one version, Leopold Mozart brought the portrait back to Salzburg with him after visiting Wolfgang in Vienna in 1785. According to a second version, however, Mozart sent it to Salzburg in 1783. The circumstantial evidence favours 1783. On 3 April of that year Mozart wrote to his father: ‘Here is the Munich opera and two copies of my sonatas! – the promised variations will be sent at the next opportunity, for the copyist was unable to finish them. Two portraits will follow as well; – I only hope that you will be satisfied with them; both seem to me equally good, and everyone who has seen them is of the same opinion (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 3, 262-3). And Nannerl Mozart also wrote of a 1783 portrait in profile, in a letter to the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf & Härtel of 4 January 1804: ‘In 1783 he sent me his portrait from Vienna, very small, in pastel, I would have had a copy made but because it is in profile, this painter would not be able to do it en face and to guarantee that it would be a perfect likeness. If you like, however, I will speak with other painters, whether they might do such a thing, and approximately how much it would cost’ (Bauer and Deutsch, Mozart. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, volume 4, 437). The pastel described by Nannerl cannot be the portrait of Mozart in his red coat, which is painted in oils. But it is possible - since Nannerl also speaks of copies - that the two pictures represent different versions, in different media, of the same portrait. As her letter makes clear, it was not uncommon at the time for portraits to be reproduced, and not always in the same size or even the same medium.
In any event, uncertainties about how and when the portrait traveled to Salzburg do not detract from the larger picture (no pun intended). The evidence of the Hagenauer family’s oral traditions, together with the details of the portrait itself and the evidence of Mozart’s letters, all suggest that what has been discovered is a previously unknown portrait of Mozart, probably executed in 1783 by the Viennese court artist Joseph Hickel.
Link to portrait
Link to KCL news item
Link to Times story
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