Mozart's Images Imagined
"Of no other famous man are there so many portraits which bear no resemblance to his actual appearance as of Mozart . Of no man does a doting posterity have so generally false a picture of him." —Arthur Schuring, Mozart Lover
The inauthentic portraits of Mozart are of three varieties. First are the authentic, contemporary portraits of other people which someone later claimed to be of Mozart. The most commonly reproduced of these misattributions is Thaddäus Helbling’s oil painting of Mozart's childhood friend, the young Count Karl Firmian. There are numerous others, many of which have absolutely nothing to do with Mozart. Second, there are carefully made forgeries, which make some claim to have an authentic connection to Mozart. Sasso only had to claim his etching was a copy of a lost portrait in order to gain credibility. Third, there are those that amount purely to artists’ fantasies about Mozart: Mozart being presented to the Empress Maria Theresa, Mozart as a boy performing on the organ, Mozart on his deathbed, and on and on. These are inspired by common myths about Mozart’s identity and in turn create new ones. Portraits such as The Young Mozart at the Organ of the Franciscan Church in Ybbs have transformed and idealized his image beyond recognition, crossing the line from art to kitsch. Search the web for Mozart Portraits and you will find more inauthentic than authentic ones; they endure because they show us something we want to see, confirming our fantasies.
Count Karl Firmian
Oil Painting by Thaddäus Helbling, ca. 1767. Original owned by the Mozarteum, Salzburg
This is one of the most commonly reproduced misattributed portraits. The boy is actually a young Count Karl Firmian, who was a childhood friend of Mozart. Note the keyboard’s odd assortment of black keys.
Anonymous Boy at the Keyboard
Oil Painting by Jean-Baptiste Perroneau, 1767. Original owned by Musée du Louvre.
The boy, wearing a Chinese coat, is touching the keyboard with one hand while thoughtfully examining the music opened on his lap. Little wonder people have attempted to claim that this is Mozart, even though there is absolutely no connection between him and the boy in this portrait.
The Fictional Royal Audience
The Young Mozart Being Presented to the Empress Maria Theresa. Painting by Eduard Ender, 1869. Original owned by the Mozarteum, Salzburg.
Ever fascinated with the idea of Mozart the child prodigy, and ever trying to capture the charm and spectacle associated with the idea of the boy genius, artists have produced numerous depictions of Mozart being presented to Empress Maria Theresa.
The Cherub-Like Genius
The Young Mozart at the Organ of the Franciscan Church in Ybbs. Oil painting by Heinrich Lossow, 1864. [1874?] Original owned by Linz Castle.
Mozart appears here as a cherub-like genius, enchanting monks who dare not disturb his heavenly music. In order to emphasize how small and young Mozart was, his legs have been shortened to dwarfish proportions. There are a number of fantasy portraits like this one, and, like this one, many cross the line between art and kitsch.
Clever Forgery
The artist claimed this was a copy of a German portrait completed around 1770. In reality, this is a clever forgery based on one of the authentic miniatures of Mozart by Lorenzo Posch. The artist simply added Mozart’s head to a scene depicting a man composing at the keyboard. Portraits were often reproduced as engravings, so the artist’s claim to authenticity was believable.
Unauthenticated Portrait
During a Concert at the Court of Empress Maria Theresa, 1760. Oil painting by Martin van Meytens (detail). Original owned by the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Martin van Meytens was Empress Maria Theresa’s court painter. This portrait (assuming that it is him) stands out among the depictions of the child Mozart. Rather than depicting Mozart as somehow removed from the real world, either as the cherub-child not quite part of this world or as the musical genius bordering on automaton, the artist portrays Mozart here as the most aware person in the crowd, gazing towards the viewer with disarming seriousness.