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A before and after comparison of the recently discovered portrait of
Chopin, prior to and post restoration. | photos: Dariusz Markowski (l), Jaroslaw Golebiowski (r) |
The reason: a surprise announcement from the Polish capital of the discovery
of an allegedly heretofore unknown portrait of the country's most cherished
musical export, Frédéric Chopin himself.
The once heavily
damaged portrait, now fully restored and safely protected by a gilded frame, was purchased at a flea market near Lublin in the early 1990's. It then
resided for some three decades in a private home, where it modestly hung on an
unidentified family's wall with nary a trace of pomp and circumstance. It was
only recently that the residents of the home, who were experiencing financial
strain, sought out an expert appraisal on the piece, hoping the 11.5" x 9" inch
portrait - although highly degraded and with layers of its paint peeling -
might earn for the family a sizeable windfall.
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The Warsaw Chopin, post restoration, seated in a gilded frame | Jaroslaw Golebiowski via AP |
The portrait, undoubtedly of Chopin - landed in the hands of Dariusz
Markowski, Professor at Nicolaus Copernius University in Toruń, Poland, also
Principal of the campus' Conservation and Restoration of Modern Art Department
in 2020. Markowski, who would restore the portrait, placed the year of
manufacture at sometime during the 19th century, basing his conclusion on a thorough analysis of the pigments and materials utilized by the artist, and
taking into account the extent of ageing and damage to the piece. As for the
identity of the painter - only the name "Alfred" has been preserved, believed
by the restorer to be the artists' forename.
As there is no identifiable artist for the piece, establishing its provenance,
thus far, has proved futile. Markowski declined to provide an estimated value
for the artwork, but declared it a portrait of both "emotional" and
"historic" value, calling the find a "real curiosity." He further adds
that he is unsure of its beginnings: did Chopin sit for this particular
portrait, and if so, for whom? Or, is the present work merely a likeness of
the composer, based on a pre-existing portrait?
As for now, these questions remain unanswered for the professor and for many collectors of composer iconography.
At the time of this posting, the family has placed the restored portrait in an
unidentified bank vault while they consider their next steps, and are believed to be planning a
public exhibit at some point in the future.
Author consensus:
I am of the opinion that this find, while interesting, may be somewhat inconsequential. I agree with Markowski that it may hold some "emotional" value, but I would stop short there.
I believe this likeness to be a later copy, by a less skilled hand, of a ca. 1847 portrait of Chopin executed by Ary Scheffer. To be more precise, of the second version by Scheffer - a bust modeled after an oil painting depicting the composer seated, at half-body's length. That Chopin actually sat for the latter portrait is documented in a letter the composer penned to his family in April the same year in which he states:
"I start this letter for the 4th time today, 16th of April, and don’t know whether I shall even now get it finished, for I must go today to Scheffer, to pose for my portrait..."
I dare to venture further, and suggest it to be a copy not of Scheffer directly, but a copy of one of the multitudes of lithographs, paintings and prints by individual artists working after Scheffer's second, "bust" version.
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Chopin by Ary Scheffer | Dordrechts Museum |
We know the of the first, original "live" version of Scheffer's Chopin thanks to Cornelia Marjolin, daughter of Ary and an artist herself, who dedicated a
daguerreotype (a reproduction) of the portrait by her father to "Ms. Erskine" (probably
Katherine Erskine, Chopin's former pupil). The daguerreotype features Chopin donning two "popped collars" and is the version less
replicated (and thus less represented) in media today as it is this version, which became the property of the composers' sister,
Izabela Barcińska, which "disappeared" during the tumultuous January Uprising of 1863 at the Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw where she was a resident, and is thus presumed to have been destroyed in a fire set by the Russian Imperial Army during its plunder of the tenement house.
The second version, also by Scheffer (with a single collar visible, pictured above)
was painted on a new canvas, and reduced simply to a bust. It is presently housed in the
Netherlands at the Dordrechts Museum.
"Cornelia's daguerreotype" is housed at the
Bibliothèque nationale de France:
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"Frédéric Chopin / after a reprod. of the portr. by Ary Scheffer" Cornelia's dedication reads (in French): "à Madame Erskine / Souvenir l'affection / Cornilia Scheffer Marjolin" | Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF |
Scores of artists have since reproduced the Dordrechts version - others, model their likeness after a mix of both the original portrait for which Chopin sat with Scheffer and the version at Dordrechts - adding the additional collar present in the daguerreotype, but omitting the composers' torso and the chair on which he sat, thus reducing him to the 2nd, "bust" version (as seen in the example below). Some used Scheffer as source material, whist others opted to reproduce reproductions, using as their prototype not the work of Scheffer himself, but the work of his imitators.
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| Chopin with a double "popped collar", this version housed in the Bibliothèque Polonaise in Paris |
The practice of reproducing a portrait "after" a previous reproduction (by an artist who was not himself the painter of the original prototype) was extremely common in the 19th century and during the centuries preceeding it - portraits of famous composers were in high demand and spanned the European continent. Their presence in manuscripts, programs and biographies served as status symbols: evidence of the esteem and accomplishments imbued by the sitter. These publications thus demanded a higher price. Where purchasers of regalia were concerned, it was a not-so-subtle proclamation of one's own high taste. Often, the practice of reproducing a portrait after a previous reproduction was employed to skirt copyright barriers (with details added or omitted to further protect the reproducer), or for lesser known artists and tricky tradesmen to hawk their wares as "originals" in order to fetch for themselves top dollar.
Scheffer's Chopin was one of the more frequently reproduced portraits of the composer, and versions of it can be found in museums around the world - in Paris, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (multiple versions), in Austria, at the Austrian National Library[1],[2], (which also houses Scheffer's own lithographic print), and in the composers' native Poland: in Żelazowa Wola at the Chopin House and at the National Museum in Kraków. These variations on the original boast artist names such as Ivan Boxel, Stanisław Stattler (Scheffer's pupil), Maximilian Fajans, and include plethora of unidentified names, either intentionally left anonymous, or the result of the artist's signature being degraded and/or lost to the hands of time.
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| An example of a portrait of Chopin after Scheffer with no identifying artist information, preserved at the NYPL in the Joseph Muller Collection of Music & Other Portraits |
Incidentally, there is also a print, housed in the music department at the National Library of France, by a certain "Alfred" - in this case, the lithographer
Alfred Lemoine - whose piece is based after the Scheffer portrait. It includes the two "popped collars" as seen in the Warsaw portrait, and although Lemoine opted to dress his Chopin in what appears to be a double breasted jacket, the composers' visage features a similar set of pursed lips and pronounced chin as seen in the newly discovered piece. A brief search into
Lemoine's catalogue raisonné (what exists of it) points to other prints of composers,
including one of Haydn housed at the British Museum, which too, bears a similar stylistic signature to the Warsaw discovery. It is important to note that where reproductions of reproductions are concerned, stylistic garb would sometimes vary, to keep up with the fashion at the time. For clarity, Scheffer's original portrait of Chopin was executed ca. 1847, whilst Lemoine's 1860 version is dated over a decade later (13 years to be exact), when double-breasted coats were all the rage.
If I were to posit a possible connection between the newfound Polish likeness
and Scheffer, I would look at the less skilled hand of Lemoine, and examine the
significantly less skilled hand in the Warsaw portrait. In my opinion, this
downward trend of artistic ability, seen so often in composer iconography, points
to a separate, unidentified artist, possibly painting his portrait after Alfred
Lemoine's copy of Scheffer's original. We must also take into account the present restoration and its adherence - or lack thereof - to the newly discovered piece at Warsaw.
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"Frédéric Chopin / Alfred Lemoine, after Ary Scheffer" Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF |
If my hypothesis is correct, I would presume the financial worth of the discovery at Warsaw will prove to be rather negligible - the monetary value on pieces like these are often arbitrary. Unless the
artist was held or is currently held in esteem, a copy after a copy after an
original portrait is worth, frankly, as much as a collector deems it to be
worth - in other words, it's nostalgic, or "emotional" value to the buyer.
This marks the second time in recent years that iconography relating to Chopin has made international news.
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In January 2017, the possibility of a newly discovered "daguerreotype" (pictured left) was erroneously announced by worldwide media, sparking an intense, and immediate sense of excitement within the classical music world as numerous journalists pronounced the find as the third, previously unknown "photograph" of the composer to remain extant.
Although its founders never announced the medium used to produce the portrait with any certainty - they merely labelled it a "potential" daguerreotype or "at the very least a photograph of a [since lost] daguerreotype" - like a game of broken telephone, news of an officially recognized, never-before-seen third 'daguerreotype' (sic) seemed to stick.
To this day, this belief persists, despite an announcement made by researchers at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute just nine months later which revealed the portrait to be not an early daguerreotype at all, nor a previously undiscovered likeness of the composer but rather, a modern photograph of a fragment of a reproduction of a pre-existing painting executed by 20th century artist Ludomir Sleńdziński (pictured below).
Art historian Małgorzata Grąbczewska, whose area of specialty is 19th
century photography, was quietly consulted by the institute for further
research amidst the public furore over the portrait. She managed to trace the photograph to Ostrogski castle in Warsaw, where a
reproduction of Sleńdziński 's mid-twentieth century painting had previously been
presented in an exhibition devoted to the Polish pianist, conductor and
founder of the International Chopin Piano Competition, Jerzy Żurawlew.
As self-styled Chopin and photography aficionados analyzed the supposed daguerreotype, confirming for themselves its authenticity by dubious means, Grąbczewska had already made, what she referenced as a very "easy" discovery, incredulously telling Polish media:
""We cooperated, although our hypotheses were completely different. They were convinced that they had found a reproduction of the daguerreotype, and in my opinion we were dealing with a reproduction of a painting. Some [aspects of the portrait] were clearly of a painterly nature. Until recently, however, there was no proof that would confirm one of the versions... I managed to find trace evidence that led me to Ludomir Sleńdziński. He is a painter whose daughter was a pianist and student of Jerzy Żurawlew, an outstanding Chopin player. The Chopin portraits that belonged to him were exhibited at the Chopin Museum from 1984 to at least 2000.
In 1951, Sleńdziński painted a portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, which, I suspected, was modeled on various images of the composer created during his lifetime, including the famous daguerreotype created in Bisson's Paris atelier. It seemed so realistic that one could succumb to the illusion that we are dealing with photography [however] in the Sleńdziński Gallery in Białystok, I managed to find a reproduction of this painting, which provided a solution to the mystery...
...determining the place of storage of the original work was not difficult. It is [presently] owned by the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Krakow. Interestingly, according to the information provided to me by the curators of these collections, it was exhibited in Krakow for years. This means that many people saw him and it is surprising that this portrait, although having been [for a period of time] extremely successful, was not noted by the [very capable] researchers at the NIFC [Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina / Fryderyk Chopin Institute], nor was it published in any of the dozens or hundreds of publications about Chopin that appeared in both Poland and around world since his death."
| Below: Aside from sitting for his portrait with Scheffer in 1847, Chopin was busy putting the finishing touches on what would become his arguably most recognizable composition, the famous Waltz in D-flat major, the first of his iconic Trois Valses, Op. 64. Chopin's biographers have often repeated the claim that the famous piece (known by its unofficial, popular name, the "Minute Waltz") was inspired by the composers' observation of a small dog chasing its tail, prompting him to name the piece "Valse du petit chien", or "The Little Dog Waltz". Arthur Rubinstein performs: |
Footnotes:
-Rose.For the quote by Chopin regarding his session with Scheffer, see E.L. Voynich (ed.) Frédéric Chopin: Chopin's Letters, New York, A. A. Knopf, 1931, letter 227 p. 326
For more information on the plunder of 1863 at the Zamoyski tenement house (Palace) during which the original, first portrait of Chopin is believed to have been intentionally damaged in a fire by the Russian Imperial Army, see Huneker, James, Chopin: The Man and his Music, C. Scribner's Sons, 1900, p.40
and also see: Mirosława Modrzewska, Frédéric Chopin’s grand piano, 2020 European Romanticisms in AssociationPress: AP article detailing find
For more on the painting and false "daguerreotype" of Chopin see "AN IMPORTANT UPDATE CONCERNING THE 'RECENTLY DISCOVERED' "DAGUERREOTYPE" OF FREDERIC CHOPIN" here on Unraveling Musical Myths
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