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Portrait of a Musician
Provenance
Probably Prince Johann II (died 1929), Liechtenstein, Vienna and Vaduz, acquired between 1873 and 1880 [according to an email to Margaret Crosland of September 12, 2013, from Arthur Stögmann, archivist of the Liechtenstein Princely Collections, who explains that the painting was acquired before 1880, based on a note in an inventory of 1900; it does not appear in the 1873 edition of Fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Gemäldegalerie]; probably by descent to Prince Franz Josef II, Liechtenstein; sold to Wildenstein and Co., New York, in 1961 [according to a letter of August 4, 1977, to Susan Wise from Reinhold Baumstark, then director of the Liechtenstein collection, copy in curatorial file]; sold on February 5, 1962, to the Art Institute of Chicago for $99,500.
Exhibition history
Vienna, Künstlerhaus, Katalog der Ausstellung anlässlich der Centenarfeier Domenico Cimarosa’s, 1901, no. 1, as a portrait of Domenico Cimarosa, attributed to Pietro Longhi (?). Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Mostra del ritratto italiano: dalla fine del sec. XVI all’anno 1861, March – July, 1911, no. 50, as a portrait of Cimarosa, attributed to Alessandro Longhi. Novara, Instituto Geografico de Agostini, La pittura italiano del settecento, 1942, no. 75, as a portrait of Domenico Cimarosa, attributed to Alessandro Longhi. Lucerne, Kunstmuseum, Meisterwerke aus den Sammlungen des Fürsten von Liechtenstein, June 5 - October 31, 1948, no. 46, as a portrait of Domenico Cimarosa, attributed to Alessandro Longhi. Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century: Rococo to Romanticism, September 19 – November 8, 1970, no. 26, as a portrait of a musician, attributed to Alessandro Longhi; traveled to Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Art, December 3, 1970 - January 10, 1971; Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, February 7 – March 21, 1971. Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, European Portraits 1600-1900 in the Art Institute of Chicago, July 8 – September 11, 1978, no. 7, as an unknown sitter, attributed to Jacopo Amigoni. Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Art Museum, A Medley of Images: Art in the Age of Mozart, October 18 – November 20, 1991, no cat. no., as a portrait of a musician, attributed to Jacopo Amigoni.
Publications
Fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Gemäldegalerie, Katalog der Fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Bilder-Galerie im Gartenpalais der Rossau zu Wien (Vienna, 1885), no. 223, p. 32. Wilhelm Bode, Die Fürstlich Liechtenstein’sche Galerie in Wien (Vienna, 1896), p. 80. Aldo Ravà, Pietro Longhi (Bergamo, 1909), pp. 52, 132, ill. Ricciotti Bratti, “Ritratti di Pietro e di Alessandro Longhi,” Arte Nostra, nos. 1-2 (1910), pp. 25-26, ill. Gustave Soulier, “Correspondance d’Italie: Le portrait italien à l’exposition de Florence,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. 4, vol. 6 (1911), p. 76. Nello Tarchiani, “La Mostra del ritratto italiano: dalla fine del secolo XVI all’anno 1861, in Palazzo Vecchio a Firenze,” Rassegna d’Arte 11, 5 (1911), pp. 88, ill, 90-91. Piero Misciattelli, “L’Altare della Patria, ed il Fregio di Angiolo Zanelli,” Vita d’Arte 8 (1911), pp. 22, ill., 25. Art[uro] Jahn Rusconi, “Exposition des portraits italiens à Florence,” Les Arts, 120 (1911), pp. 13, ill., 28, 32. Ciro Caversazzi et al., Il ritratto italiano dal Caravaggio al Tiepolo (Bergamo, 1911), pp. 199-200, 215-216, pl. 9. Margherita Nugent, All’esposizione del ritratto: note e impressioni (Florence, 1912), pp. 77-78, ill. A[dolf] Kronfeld, Führer durch die Fürstlich Liechtensteinsche Gemäldegalerie in Wien (Vienna, 1925), p. 119, and subsequent editions [including 1931]. Luigi Parigi, “La musica figurate. VII. Allegorie, nature morte, ritratti,” La Rassegna Musicale 1 (1928), p. 486. Gino Damerini, I pittori veneziani del ‘700 (Bologna, 1928), pp. 104, 111, 114-115. L. Brosch, “Longhi, Alessandro” in Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 23 (Leipzig, 1929), 355-356. Vittorio Moschini, La pittura italiana del Settecento (Florence, 1931), p. 53, fig. 61. Vittorio Moschini, “Per lo studio di Alessandro Longhi,” L’Arte n.s. 3 (1932), pp. 118-119. Alfred Stix and Erich V. Strohmer, Die Fürstlich Liechtensteinische Gemäldegalerie in Wien (Vienna, 1938), p. 94, fig. 24. Giulio Lorenzetti, La pittura italiana del Settecento (Novara, 1942), pl. 75. Giuseppe De Logu, “I capolavori del Liechtenstein a Lucerna,” Emporium 108 (1948), p. 125. Rodolfo Pallucchini, “Disegni veneziani del Settecento in America,” Arte Veneta 2 (1948), p. 167. Comitato Nazionale per le Celebrazioni Cimarosiana, Per il bicentenario della nascita di Domenico Cimarosa 1749 – 1949 (Aversa, 1949), n. p., ill. Odoardo H. Giglioli, “Four Unknown Portraits,” Burlington Magazine 92 (1950), p. 270. Vincenzo Golzio, Storia dell’arte classica e italiana: Il Seicento e il Settecento, vol. 4 (Turin, 1950), pp. 840-1, fig. 885. Friedrich Blume, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 2 (Kassel and Basel, 1952), pl. 45, ill. Lionello Venturi, Lezioni di Storia dell’Arte Moderna: La pittura del Settecento (Rome, 1952-1953), p. 208. Kunsthaus Zürich, Schönheit des 18. Jahrhunderts: Malerei, Plastik, Porzellan, Zeichnung (Zurich, 1955), pp. 43-44, fig. 191. Antonio Morassi, “Una mostra del Settecento a Zurigo,” Arte Veneta 9 (1955), p. 277. Giuseppe Maria Pilo, “Per la datazione di tre ritratti di Alessandro Longhi,” Paragone, no. 91 (1957), p. 46. Carlo Donzelli, I pittori veneti del Settecento (Florence, 1957), p. 132. Andreina Griseri, “Longhi, Alessandro” Grande dizionario enciclopedico, vol. 7 (Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1958), p. 1082. Vincenzo Golzio, Seicento e Settecento, vol. 2 (Turin, 1960), p. 1229, fig. 968. André Chastel, “Il Settecento veneziano nelle arti,” La civiltà veneziana del Settecento, ed. Diego Valeri (Florence, 1960), p. 225. Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 1961-1962 (Chicago, 1962), cover, ill., p. 13. “Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: January-March 1962,” The Art Quarterly 25, 2 (1962), p. 178. Alberto Riccoboni, “Opere giovanili di Alessandro Longhi,” Emporium 137 (1963), p. 11. Georges Wildenstein, “La Chronique des Arts,” Supplément à la Gazette des Beaux-Arts 61 (February 1963), p. 35, fig. 134. John Maxon, “Three Baroque Portraits,” The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 57, 1 (1963), p. 7. Ferruccia Cappi Bentivegna, ed., Abbigliamento e costume nella pittura italiana: Barocco e Impero, vol. 2 (Rome, 1964), p. 322, fig. 435, Appendix, pp. 77-78. Hans Lenneberg, “A Negative Contribution to Haydn Iconography: The Longhi Portrait,” The Haydn Yearbook/Das Haydn Jahrbuch 2 (1963/4), pp. 66-67, 71, ill. Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84 (1966), p. 207, pl. 7. Rosita Levi Pisetzky, Storia del costume in Italia, vol. 4 (Milan, 1967), pl. 100. Rodolfo Pallucchini, “La Pittura Veneta del Settecento alla mostra itinerante di Chicago-Minneapolis-Toledo,” Arte Veneta 24 (1970), p. 291. Italo Faldi, “Painting in the Eighteenth Century: Rococo to Romanticism,” Burlington Magazine, 113 (1971), p. 564. Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, 1972), p. 108, 521, 571. Giuseppe De Logu and Guido Marinelli, Il ritratto nella pittura italiana, vol. 2 (Bergamo, 1976), p. 185. Pierre Dantraique, La peinture venitienne (Neuchâtel, 1989), p. 304. Rodolfo Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Settecento, vol. 2 (Milan, 1996), pp. 437, 441, fig. 695. Karoline Czerwenka-Papadopoulos, Typologie des Musikerporträts in Malerei und Graphik: Das Bildnis des Musikers ab der Renaissance bis zum Klassizismus, vol. 1 (Vienna, 2007), p. 86. Paolo Delorenzi, “Alessandro Longhi, pittore e incisore del Settecento veneziano” (PhD diss., Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, 2011), pp. 55-56, 126-127, 156, 177, 180-181, 187, 414, fig. 83.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Alessandro Longhi (Italian, 1733–1813)
- Date
- c. 1770
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 144.5 × 104.6 cm (56 7/8 × 41 3/16 in.); Framed: 162 × 123.9 × 14 cm (63 3/4 × 48 3/4 × 5 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- painting
- Style
- 18th Century
- Place
- Italy
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
- Accession no.
- 1962.76
More by Alessandro Longhi in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00001341
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