The The Meiningen Pastel – Bach Through The Eyes Of His Relatives Pages at The Face Of Bach
Page 1 – Did the Father Paint It, or Is It the Work of his Son?
Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747, 1748, and 1750
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
Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747, 1748, and 1750
The Meiningen Pastel
Bach Through The Eyes of His Relatives
Part One
Did the Father Paint It, or Is It the Work of his Son?
The best description of the Meiningen Pastel, one I could not hope to better, is Karl Geiringer’s in his The Bach Family – Seven Generations of Creative Genius, a book that is twenty years old in its most recent edition, but still a particularly valuable resource. Geiringer was the first to disclose to the general public the existence of this likeness of Sebastian Bach:
“Like other pastels by Gottlieb Friedrich Bach, this portrait is not signed. However, its small size, the predominant use of the painter’s favourite color, a brilliant cobalt blue, and in particular the realistic conception of the picture, are distinctive characteristics of Friedrich’s art. The beautiful courtier’s redingote Sebastian is wearing contrasts with the sober garments depicted in the Haussmann portraits…If Gottlieb Friedrich had no other claims to fame, this highly expressive likeness of the Thomas Cantor which greatly enriches our extremely meager stock of authentic Bach pictures would be sufficient to establish the painter among the significant portraitists of the time.” (Geiringer, The Bach Family – Seven Generations of Creative Genius, London, 1954, 4th Impression, 1980, p. 449)
The original of this image has descended through the Meiningen branch of the Bach family, with whom Sebastian Bach and his family maintained close ties, and, at least in 1978, the pastel was still in the possession of a direct descendant of Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731). The picture is neither signed nor dated, but on the basis of long standing family tradition, it is, to the satisfaction his descendants and many others, at least, the handiwork of Gottlob (Gottlieb) Friedrich Bach (1714-1785), Johann Ludwig’s younger son.
On the basis of that family tradition, Karl Bernhard Paul Bach (1878-1968), the great-great grandson of Johann Ludwig and the great-grandson of Gottlieb Friedrich, who owned this portrait for many years,
“Declared it to be the work of his great-grandfather, court organist and cabinet painter Gottlieb Friedrich Bach (1714-1785), son of the Meiningen”
