The Index Page at The Face Of Bach
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The Face Of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747,
1748, and 1750
The Face Of Bach
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News About The Bach Portraits! ~~~ ~ ~~~ Links - Bach and Non-Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747,
1748, and 1750
The Face Of Bach
This remarkable photograph is not a computer generated
composite; the original of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, all that remains of the
portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that belonged to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel, is
resting gently on the surface of the original of the 1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait
of Johann Sebastian Bach.
1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait, Courtesy of William
H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey
Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, ca. 1733, Artist Unknown, Courtesy of the Weydenhammer
Descendants
Photograph by Teri Noel Towe
©Teri Noel Towe, 2001, All Rights Reserved
Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747,
1748, and 1750
Added on August 24, 2001
The Meiningen Pastel - Bach Through The Eyes of His Relatives
Added on August 11, 2001
The Portrait That Does NOT Depict Johann Sebastian Bach and Three of His Sons
Added on April 2, 2001
QuinSee™, Jay DeBoer's New Digital Photo Superimposition Program, Meets The Bach Portraits!
March 21, 2001
Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747,
1748, and 1750
Welcome to The Face Of Bach.
The Face Of Bach is a website devoted to the portraits of Johann Sebastian Bach, and to the fair and accurate analysis of the various images that purport to be accurate depictions of the facial features of Johann Sebastian Bach.
As I continue to develop this site, I hope to offer thorough evaluations of the various Bach portraits and to provide information on the source materials that are the foundation for any discussion of the portraits of Johann Sebastian Bach.
When I opened this website, on July 31, 2000, the 250th anniversary of the interment of the mortal remains of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Johanneskirchof on what were then the outskirts of the City of Leipzig, I announced to the world the existence of a previously unknown portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach. After 191 years, the long lost portrait of Bach that had belonged to his devoted pupil Johann Christian Kittel had finally turned up!
Because of the interest that the announcement engendered, I quickly built a series of pages about the Bach Portraits. Because so much refinement and revision of those pages is needed, all but two of them have been removed from the website for that purpose.
However, in place of those pages, I am pleased to present a series of pages containing the text of the presentation that I made on March 21, 2001, at Queens College of the City University of New York, together with the accompanying illustrations.
In this presentation, which I made on the 316th anniversary of Bach's birth, I not only offered proof that the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment is an accurate depiction of the face of a Johann Sebastian Bach about 15 years younger than the Johann Sebastian Bach of the familiar Haussmann portraits, but also demonstrated why the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment is what remains of the portrait of Bach that belonged to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel.
Please click on 
or on the presentation title to read the
Queens College Lecture of March 21, 2001, which is entitled The
Face Of Bach - The Search for the Portrait that Belonged to Kittel.
I have retained two pages from the previous incarnation of The Face Of Bach.
One such page is devoted to the Volbach portrait, the
portrait of Bach in the last months of his life. I am about to embark on a thorough
evaluation of this extraordinary image, which I have long been convinced is an authentic
portrait from life, using a recently made 8x10 transparency as the basis for my analysis.
In the meantime, please click on 
or on the page title to read The
Inscrutable Volbach Portrait, which contains the preliminary results of my
analysis of this powerful painting.
The other such page, which I admit badly needs
"tweaking", is devoted to a discussion of the first portrait print of
Johann Sebastian Bach. This print was engraved by S. G. Kütner, a schoolmate of one of
JSB's grandsons. Please click on 
or on the page title to read The S. G.
Kütner Engraving of 1774.
Since I first updated The Face Of Bach, on April
2, 2001, I have been compelled, serendipitously and fortuitously, to deal with The Group
Portrait that is alleged to depict Johann Sebastian Bach and three of his sons and that
some scholars attribute to Balthasar Denner. To read my analysis of this fascinating image
and consider my conclusions about it who it really depicts, please click on 
or on the page's title, The Portrait That Does NOT
Depict J. S. Bach With Three of his Sons. Those of you who have read this
discussion since it was first posted may now want to look at the bottom of the second page again, because, since I posted these pages
initially, I have added two Addenda that contain exciting new information about the
provenance of the Group Portrait, including a photograph of one of the two exemplars of
the portrait that was taken when it was exhibited in 1904!
I also have responded to the many requests that I have
received for an evaluation of the portrait in the city museum in Erfurt that purports to
depict Bach while court organist and Concertmeister in Weimar. Even though you
may not be ecstatic about the answer given to the question that is posed, please click on 
or on the page's title to read The Portrait in
Erfurt Alleged to Depict Bach, the Weimar Concertmeister - Is this young man really Johann
Sebastian Bach?.
The pressures of my law practice and the pressing need to
attend to important family matters notwithstanding, I at last am able to provide an
updated version of the page on the Meiningen Pastel that was "on line" at the
original version of The Face Of Bach. Please click on 
or on the page's title to read The Meiningen Pastel - Bach Through The Eyes Of His Relatives.
Lastly, I have added a discussion of one of the least known
of the Bach Portraits, one that sadly disappeared during World War Two, and one that not
only is an accurate depiction of the facial features of Johann Sebastian Bach but also a
portrait from life, a portrait that almost certainly was commissioned by one of Bach's
best known, most devoted, and most generous patrons. Please click on 
or on the page's title to read The Portrait
of Bach That Was Lost In World War Two - An Authentic "Alternative" to the
Haussmann Image of Johann Sebastian Bach in his early 60s.
With all best wishes,
Teri Noel Towe
April 26, 2002
P. S.:
If you are interested in receiving occasional notices about updates to The Face Of Bach, please subscribe to the e-mail list that I have established at YahooGroups.com; for further information, please point your browser to:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/TheFaceOfBach
TNT
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Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747,
1748, and 1750
News About The Bach Portraits! ~~~ ~ ~~~ Links - Bach and Non-Bach
Please click on 
to visit the Johann Sebastian Bach
Index Page at Teri Noel Towe's Homepages.
Please click on the 
to visit the Teri Noel Towe Welcome Page.
Copyright, Teri Noel Towe, 2000, 2001, 2002
Unless otherwise credited, all images of the Weydenhammer Portrait: Copyright, The
Weydenhammer Descendants, 2000
All Rights Reserved
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Johann Sebastian Bach ca. 1733, ca. 1741, 1746, 1747,
1748, and 1750