Diane Kolin

“Story Behind” Series #23 – September 2nd, 2021

Posted on by Diane Kolin

Published on Franz Liszt Group, on September 2nd, 2021. If you want to know how the Story Behind series started, I give details in “Story Behind” Series #1″.

Original post:

(No comment, only the picture.)

Picture in black and white taken in 1869. It represents Liszt in front of an upright piano. He wears a black long coat and black pants. His hands are on the keyboard. He looks at a score.

I couldn’t miss the occasion to post a new “story behind” about this picture. This famous photograph is often used to represent Liszt. We can see him sitting at an upright piano. There was a series of pictures taken at the piano. We sometimes see one of these with Liszt’s signature on the score. Liszt was often signing pictures of him to give to his pupils and friends. He signed one of these directly on the score. Here is the picture in question.

Picture in black and white taken in 1869. It represents Liszt in front of an upright piano. He wears a black long coat and black pants. His hands are on the keyboard. He looks toward the camera.

This picture was taken in 1869 by Edgar Hanfstaengl, son of Franz Hanfstaengl, a Bavarian painter, lithographer, and photographer. A prominent lithographer in Dresden, Franz opened his photograph studio in Munich in 1853. He became court photographer, taking portraits of King Ludwig II, Otto von Bismarck and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. He also worked with many artistic figures, among which Liszt, Wagner and Clara Schumann. He was a frequent visitor of Liszt and took series of pictures of him in 1856, 1858, 1867. On November 12, 1868, he transferred his studio to his son Edgar, who took over. This photograph is from the August 1869 series.

At the time this picture was taken, Liszt was already an Abbé (since 1865). 1869, the year of the picture, was the year he came back to Weimar. Liszt previously lived in Weimar from 1848 to 1861. He left when the Altenburg was closed, after his failed wedding with Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein. In 1869 his protector and long-time friend the Grand Duke Carl Alexander invited him back to Weimar and put at his disposal a house where he lived until the end of his life, famous for being the place where he gave his masterclasses: the Hofgärtnerei. Today, this Weimar building is known as the Liszt-Haus, or Liszt Museum. Everything inside the building has been kept as it was left in 1886 when Liszt died. I was there two weeks ago. Here is a picture of the salon, taken by me on August 16, 2021.

Picture in color taken in 2021. It represents the interior of Liszt's living room in Weimar. There are large red curtains on the windows. On the left we can see part of an upright piano, and a grand piano. There are two old music stands close to the grand piano. On the right, a small table with two brown chairs. In the back, a portrait of Beethoven on the left wall, and a desk on the right.