A Painting by Johann Sebastian Bach?

Badende Hirten in einem Wald
Kunstsammlung der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
(http://www.bildindex.de/obj15501904.html#|home)

An artwork that stayed in a private collection in Dresden until 1864, then traveled to Leipzig, then to Munich (auctioned by Karl & Faber) where it remained till 1967, when it entered in a private collection in Oberlin, Ohio. Since 1980 it belongs to the Art Collection of George August University in Goettingen.

The name of the work is Badende Hirten in einem Wald (Bathing Herdsmen in a Forest); it is a drawing, described in Die Schenkung Stechow in der Göttinger Universitäts-Kunstsammlung, by Karl Arndt (1986): Stift (grau), Tusche (braun), Tusche (hellgrau), Papier, laviert (hellgrau) & Pinsel (Pinsel in Braun und Hellgrau über grauem Stift; hellgrau laviert). It is mentioned also a small hole within the lower range (ein kleines Loch im unteren Bereich).

The name of the author comes as a surprise: Johann Sebastian Bach, no more no less! Was the great composer also a painter? Actually the author was the grandson of Bach, and he remained known as Johann Sebastian Bach der Jungere (the Younger). He was the son of composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and lived between 1748 - 1778. This great musical dynasty had also an artist painter within its ranks.

Bach der Jungere created mostly brush drawings, also book illustrations. His works are now in art collections in Coburg, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig and Vienna.


(Old Masters)