Photo of Mozart's widow found (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

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 36 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.




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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5157200.stm

on edit: added the photo (duh!) and a little thumbnail to show she's the one on the left

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. Cool!

[xchrom]

2. great photo!

it's a great detail of contemporary life at that time.

[Ian_rd]

3. An inside joke for you Ammadeus movie fans

Tish I'm tee!

[Aristus]

21. *gasp!* Watch your mouth!

;-)

[kurth]

4. Awesome. They still need to find Beethoven's Immortal Beloved

[Bucky]

5. Rather convenient timing. I wonder what They are distracting us from.

And the shadows don't even match up! Obviously a Cointelpro psyops plant. I recognize that guy in the back row from several Bretton Woods photos. Where were they on November 22nd, '63? Coincidence? I think not.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Bad news about to break re Scalieri? nt

[tenshi816]

8. The guy in the back

looks like Donald Rumsfeld.

[HamdenRice]

12. A real conspiracy theory anomoly in the pic

In the 1840s when this kind of daguerreotype was made, the cameras required long exposures to make the image. That's why photos right through the Victorian age typically have people sitting in such rigid, formal poses. Even Brady's civil war photos show people standing rigidly, or of course if they were corpses, lying still.

Note the guy in the back row in the middle. His gesture looks somewhat spontaneous, leaning forward and at an angle. He would have to have held that pose for a very long, uncomfortable time.

Perhaps the photographer was trying to mimick spontanaeity, which they sometimes did in those days. But I find that position curious, because it would be backbreakingly akward to hold for as long as needed for this kind of photo.

[SaveElmer]

14. They also used hidden devices...

To help people hold their poses. Usually to help hod their heads still. The man could be leaning on something we cannot see

[FuzzyDicePHL]

16. Agree

I noticed his position almost immediately. It looks more like a snapshot than a posed portrait.

[ms liberty]

19. OK, I just had to comment on this!

"Even Brady's civil war photos show people standing rigidly, or of course if they were corpses, lying still."

As opposed to the corpses getting up at precisely 4 pm to partake in a spot of afternoon tea?

Sorry! That statement just struck me as hilarious in a Monty Python sort of way!

[StellaBlue]

26. Bwhahahaha!

Nov 22 hahahaha

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Fooled me. Thought it was some of Santorum's female backers

[William Seger]

11. Nah, there are 5 of them.

Santorum is "leading 4 women."

[wicket]

9. Fascinating!

Thanks for posting this!

[Swamp Rat]

10. Oberhammer!

:)

[azurnoir]

13. Wow, that means

she was 78 at the time of the photo, quite a ripe old age for back then.

[myrna minx]

15. This is fascinating. Thanks for posting.

:toast:

[shain from kane]

17. DON GIOVANNI. n/t

[Arkham House]

18. What a shame Mozart himself didn't live long enough...

...to be in this pic...he'd have been 84. God--what sort of music would we have had, if Mozart had lived on into the "Romantic" era, and heard--and even outlived--Beethoven?

[MamaBear]

20. Or Wagner

How would Mozart's most mature pieces have influenced that generation? One can only dream.

[Aristus]

24. It would have been nice to see what he looked like, even as an

old man. It would clear up the mystery of exactly how he looked. Few of the portraits of him as an adult were taken from life. And they are all different from one another.

I'm reminded of the dagguerrotype of John Quincy Adams. It was also taken of him as an old man, but I always think when I see it: "This photograph is just ONE generation removed from John Adams, 2nd President and a founding father."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. I love seeing daguerrotypes and other examples from the dawn of

photography.

If you get a chance, see the movie "Felice, Felice," a drama based on the life of a Dutch-Italian photographer who traveled in Japan in the 19th century and took some of the earliest photos of that country as it was just coming into contact with the West.

It incorporates many of his photos of people and places.

[eppur_se_muova]

25. I guess you saw the thread about old color photographs ...

a couple of days ago, started by BenBurch. I can't look for the link right now, but I saved these...

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dellaert/aligned/

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

http://www.worldwaronecolorphotos.com/index.html

[Gabi Hayes]

23. here's another one of her, doing some sprucing up

[lildreamer316]

27. HA! Now now, you're insulting Mozart. n/t