Portraits of J.S.Bach and his children are uncommon, and are usually copies executed many years after their death. In spite of this there are several that are distinguished as much by their artistic quality as by their accuracy. Such, for example, is the case of probably the best-known and authentic portrait of Bach, that of 1748 by Elias Gottlob Haussmann.
Some interesting portraits of his children also survive, such as the one by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) of the youngest of the composer’s twenty children, Johann Christian (1735-1782).
Our cover portrait is particularly interesting: the composer’s second child, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710–1784) by the little-known artist Wilhelm Weitsch.
