Signed Cabinet Photograph - dated during "a quite wonderful intermezzo of the loveliest of snow landscapes in the middle of summer"

Cabinet photograph, signed by the German romantic composer and pianist. Sepia-tone, a three-quarters portrait of the famous composer shown seated on a rustic wooden bench in this 1894 photograph by Rudolf Krziwanek, signed in the upper blank area of the image in dark brown ink, "Johannes Brahms / 25/5 95."  10.5 x 15 cm [4.2 x 5.8 inches]. The lower mount trimmed, archivally matted and set under UV plexiglass in a period red crushed velvet frame. Overall in fine condition.

The composer has inscribed while summering in Bad Ischl in 1895, a year which would be the first since 1872 that he did not release any compositions.  "The lure of Bad Ischl for Brahms was the rather paradoxical combination of the company that he found there and the seclusion that the remote mountain town provided.  The atmosphere of the spa provided the sociability that his melancholy and lonely personality craved as well as the prospect of romantic dalliances.  Although he did not share Strauss's enthusiasm for the sometimes incessant rain and storms, he came to accept the weather and even reveled in a heavy snowfall at the end of May 1895: 'the quite wonderful intermezzo of the loveliest of snow landscapes in the middle of summer.'"  (Ian C. Bradley, "Water Music," p. 138)

The letter quoted here was penned to his friend Eusebius Mandyczewski, Romanian musicologist, composer, conductor, on the day following the present example of the composer's signature.  Brahms - though an autograph collector himself - disliked the notion of his signature being collected. He rarely signed photographs (and if so, usually on the verso), signed many letters with his initials only, and the present fully signed example is a rarity indeed. (13226)

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Signed Photograph

Classical Music

• Sold