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Photo found: Mozart's Widow Constanze Mozart

26 July 2006

Earlier, a friend Amarnath, from one of my Mozart groups sent this info to me:  "Tel, I saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you should see it. This may be an interesting item for your Classical Music Lounge."

I hastened to BBC News website.

Amarnath thinks that there seems to be some mistake in the narrative about the position of Contanze in the picture. It came to mind immediately the one person I know who would be able and delighted to enlighten me on this, none other than dear friend Agnes Selby, author of Constanze, Mozart's Beloved.

** Photo of Mozart's widow found **
A copy of the only photo of Mozart's widow Constanze Weber is found in a Bavarian town.


Note:
For easy accessibility, I've cut and pasted the UK version's article from BBC News. Thanks BBC, thanks Amarnath.


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Photo of Mozart's Widow Found



A print of the only photograph of Mozart's widow, Constanze Weber, has been found in Germany.
The photograph was taken in 1840 in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. She died two years later.

The local authorities say detailed examination has proved the authenticity of the image, which is a copy of the original daguerreotype.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at the age of 35 in 1791, when Constanze was 29. She later married a Danish diplomat.

The print is one of the earliest examples of photography in Bavaria. It was found in the town archives.

The daguerreotype was taken at the home of the Swiss composer Max Keller, whom Constanze used to visit regularly.

Mozart and Constanze had six children in their nine-year marriage. Only two of them survived past childhood.

The daguerreotype shows Constanze at front left, next to Max Keller. His wife Josefa is on the right. Behind them are (from the right): their daughters Josefa and Luise, Max Keller's brother-in-law Philipp Lattner and the family's cook. They are outside the Keller family's house.

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