Musicians. Family portrait formerly regarded as the Bach Family, attributed to Balthasar Denner, possibly early 1730s

Musicians.

Family portrait formerly regarded as the Bach Family, attributed to Balthasar Denner 

in oils, on canvas, unsigned, in an eighteenth-century gilt frame, overall dimensions 117.8 x 101.6cm, unframed dimensions 79.8 x 63.8cm, on the back of the frame the vestiges of two labels, one with the number 1249, the other reading "Münchener Jahres Ausstellung 1899 im Glaspalast Nr. 2737 Name des Absenders...Wohnung", no place, possibly early 1730s 

Before its appearance at the auction of Old Master Paintings at Sotheby's in July 1996, this fine portrait depicting a family of four musicians - a middle-aged man holding in amateurish fashion a four-stringed violoncello (evidently from central Germany, c.1730s), a young boy with a violin, an older boy holding a transverse flute, and a still older youth also holding a violin - had remained in a German collection and was unknown to the wider world, although at least one of the two labels on the frame hints at some nineteenth-century public exposure, in a Munich exhibition in 1899.

Both this portrait, and a less finished, less brilliant, version of this painting attributed to the leading German portraitist of the day, Balthasar Denner (1685-1749), and now in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, have been held variously to represent the Bach family, even possibly the Abel family of musicians. A number of objections however can be raised to both of these identifications - regarding for instance the ages and identities of the possible sitters - which rule out in our opinion the depiction of either musical family. As far as the Bach family is concerned, one only need wonder why the leading organist and harpsichordist of his day, J.S. Bach, should be depicted holding a violoncello (the wrong way round). Yet whoever may be depicted in the Kohn portrait, it remains a highly interesting, if tantalising, image of an eighteenth-century family of musicians, full of research potential, and whose ultimate identification will one day surely come.

We are pleased to acknowledge the kind assistance of Teri Noel Towe and Thomas Fritzsch in our cataloguing of this lot.

LITERATURE:

Bonham’s, Old Master Paintings, London, 19 January 1978.

W. Neumann, Bilddokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs. Bach-Dokumente, iv (Kassel and Leipzig, 1979).

H.G. Ottenberg, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Leipzig, 1982).

R. Börsch-Supan, 'Gruppenbild mit Musikern. Ein Gemälde von Balthasar Denner und das Problem der Bach-Ikonographie', Kunst und Antiquitäten, iii/1982, pp.22-32.

H.C. Fischer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Sein Leben in Bildern und Dokumenten (Stuttgart, [1985]).

N. Kenyon, "A Bach family portrait?", Early Music, xiii/2 (May 1985), p.164.

C. Wolff, ed., Bach, Essays on his Life and Music (Cambridge, Mass., 1991).

Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings, London, 3 July 1996 (lot 192, 'Portrait of a family of musicians with a cello, flute and violin, said to be the family of Johann Sebastian Bach').

J.S. Bach (with annotations by C.P.E. Bach), "Genealogy of the Bach Family", reproduced and translated in The New Bach Reader, ed. H.T. David, A. Mendel and C. Wolff, 2nd edition (New York, 1998).

D. Moroney, Bach: An Extraordinary Life (London, 2000).

S. Roe, The Kohn Collection of Music, autograph manuscripts, letters, printed music, books and iconography (London: Sotheby's, 2001).

PROVENANCE:

German private possession in C19th and C20th; Sotheby's, London, Old Master Paintings, 3 July 1996 (lot 192); Exhibitions: Munich, Glaspalast Ausstellung, 6 August 1899, no.2723; Erfurt, Predigerkirche, 23 June - 3 October 2000; Reproduced in R. Emans, ed., Der junge Bach (Erfurt, 2000), pp.118-119