Early Bach painting in the Bachhaus Eisenach

According to the Bachhaus statement, some experts even consider it to have been created during Bach's lifetime. In any case, it is one of the three or four oldest depictions of Bach on a painting that still exist today, according to Bach House director Jörg Hansen.

It is clear that the portrait, which will be on display at the Bachhaus Eisenach from August 1, is a picture of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): just like the portrait painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in Leipzig's Old Town Hall in 1746, the sitter is holding a sheet of music in his hand - here the musical notes "B-A-C-H" are written on it in bass clef. The picture served as a model for numerous Bach copperplate engravings, such as the one on the title page of the first edition of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung from 1798.

The oil painting on wood was formerly in the possession of the Königliches Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, which had acquired it from the music teacher Rössel in Berlin in 1860. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was sold again to a private owner. It was not until 1985 that Bach research became aware of this painting. Following a visit to the "Echt Bach" exhibition, which the Bachhaus presented in Berlin Cathedral this spring, the owner decided to give it to the Eisenach museum on permanent loan.

It will now become part of the exhibition on Bach iconography, to which the Bach pastel from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's presumed possessions was already added in May, and which is being redesigned and expanded again to mark the occasion.