Handel portrait by John Theodore Heins

Portrait of George Frideric Handel
John Theodore Heins , c. 1740
Oil on canvas
123 × 98 cm
Loan from the Saalesparkasse Foundation ( Handel House in Halle (Saale))

The Handel Portrait of John Theodore Heins of about 1,740 is an as authentic respected portrait painter John Theodore Heins from the Baroque composer George Frideric Handel . The painting was acquired on the auction market in 2005 and has since been on permanent loan from the Saalesparkasse Foundation in the Handel House in Halle (Saale). It has been shown since 2009 in the exhibition “Handel - the European”.

history

The portrait painting appeared in the spring of 2005 at the Cologne auction house Van Ham Kunstauktionen . At the time, it was owned by the CDU politician Kurt Malangré (1934-2018), former Lord Mayor of Aachen and Member of the European Parliament . He claims to have acquired it in the Belgian art trade around 1985. The painting was called "Georg Friedrich Handel by Thomas Hudson". Since no provenance could be proven and there was uncertainty about the person depicted, the Handel House in Halle (Saale) was switched on. In order to clarify the case, the music historian and then director of the Handel House, Edwin Werner , compared the painting on offer with other Handel portraits. In particular, the birthmark on the left cheek allowed Werner to infer the composer.

On November 9, 2005 the painting was offered at auction for 19,520 euros. The musician museum was interested in acquiring it. However, due to the short-term nature of the auction and the high minimum bid, the city of Halle (Saale) did not raise the necessary funds. Instead, Werner won the Sparkasse Halle Foundation (today: Saalesparkasse) for the purchase, which promised a permanent loan to the Handel House. On November 19, 2005, the Sparkassenstiftung auctioned the painting (lot 1582).

Restorers of the Handel House found a handwritten note on the back of the painting (on the lower strip of the tenter frame ) that was probably attached in the middle of the 19th century and has since been damaged. It was u. a. the composer's name "Handel" and the English-language note "miniature in oil after Poet Cowper" noted. The mother of the poet William Cowper was once portrayed by Heins. Inspired by the picture, Cowper composed the poem On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture out of Norfolk more than 50 years later . A faded Heins signature and date ("Heins: pinxit 1740") were found on the front of the painting . This was then compared with other better preserved signatures of the German-British portrait painter.

The art historian Marcia Pointon , in consultation with the chief curator of the National Portrait Gallery in London, Jacob Simon, did not agree with Werner's judgment. However, due to the physiognomy , especially the graphic by Jacobus Houbraken (1737/38), the bust of Louis-François Roubiliac (1739) and the portrait in the Knole Collection (originally attributed to Balthasar Denner , 1736), the Handel House continues to exist an authentic Handel portrait.

literature

• Edwin Werner: GF Handel friendly and relaxed - a newly discovered portrait . In: Handel House Communications 15 (2006) 2, p. 40.
• Edwin Werner: The Handel portrait by John Theodore Heins in Halle's Handel House . In: Messages from the Freundes und Förderkreis des Händel-Haus in Hall 2/2012, pp. 28–35.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handel portraits in the collections of the Handel House Foundation . Compiled and edited by Edwin Werner. Friends and sponsors of the Handel House in Halle, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-930550-98-2 , p. 13.