A "NEW" BACH PORTRAIT

LIAS GOTTLIEB HAUSSMIANN'S painting of the thirty-eightyear-old St. Thomas cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, which was inherited by Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emanucl, praised by Charles Burney, and described in E. L. Gerber's Lexikon der Tonikiinstler, has been rediscovered and has recently found its way to this country. The reappearance of the picture is the more significant for us because this is the first original portrait of Bach painted from life-signed and dated-to reach America. It is a painting that had already been described in the 8th century; and, when it disappeared about the turn of the Igth, it became the basis of speculations and sometimes of faulty conclusions. This paper will therefore go beyond merely describing a painting,. Though a description will be included, three other vital matters will be considered first.