Download Image
Terms and conditions of use
About this work
This painting depicts the famous cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805); however, the identity of the artist remains uncertain. Born into a family of gifted musicians in Lucca, Boccherini was a child prodigy, who in his teens performed with his cellist father at the Burgtheater, Vienna, and became an accomplished composer. A prodigious technician, Boccherini’s finger positions were considered too difficult for most players to replicate. Boccherini’s extensive travels through the courts and capitals of Italy, the Holy Roman Empire, France and Spain by his late twenties, complicates the question of attribution. The work has characteristics of a northern Italian or German artist, although recent experts have suggested a French origin.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
1210-5
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Musical Portraits
Subjects (specific)
bow ties coats (garments) composers (people in music) men (male humans) musicians violoncellists violoncellos wigs
Provenance
With Charles Alfred De Burlet (1882-1956) (dealer), Berlin and Basel 1942 private collection, Berlin private collection, Munich collection of M. Widler, Zurich, before 1961 with Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London (dealer) by 1961 from where purchased under the terms of the Everard Studley Miller Bequest on the advice of A.J.L. McDonnell, 1961.