Original cartoon of Sir Julius Benedict and Franz Liszt embracing and sobbing, by Charles Lyall [1876], pen and black ink on paper, signed lower right.  7 x 4 inches; 17 x 10cm (aperture size), framed and glazed.


The drawings of Charles Lyall appeared regularly in Vanity Fair, The Musical World and the London Times, for which the present work was apparently designed to accompany the text of James William Davison's reports on the Bayreuth Festival of 1876. The present drawing is reproduced on page 290 of "Forty years of music, 1865-1905" by the English music critic and librettist Joseph Bennett who was chief music critic of The Daily Telegraph (1870-1906). Bennett describes there the circumstances around the creation of this drawing of Liszt and Benedict at Bayreuth, 1876: "Between these two some disturbance of cordial relations had occurred...[Benedict] told me, before the Bayreuth days came on, that he was doubtful of attending the 'Ring.' 'Liszt,' he said, 'will make it unpleasant for me, or, perhaps, I shall make it unpleasant for myself. Anyhow, I think I had better stay at home,' I knew he would not do this because he could not, the deed being alien to his nature, and, sure enough, he answered my expectations by appearing in due course. The inevitable happened; Liszt and Benedict met in the public way somewhere, but instead of 'wigs on the green,' two elderly men were seen hanging round each other's neck. That they both shed tears, and that Liszt's were, as suggested by an audacious wink, of the crocodile order, no reader is bound to believe. Davison was a spectator of the great reconciliation, and described it to Charles Lyall, with certain additional touches to heighten the effect. He was ever artistic in such matters." (Bennett, p. 290-91)