The 1785 painting by Christian Ludwig Seehas has been acquired by the International Joseph Haydn Private Foundation Eisenstadt

HaydnPortrait

A portrait of Joseph Haydn from 1785 has been discovered in an antique store in the US city of Savannah, Georgia. The work - one of three versions by Christian Ludwig Seehas, dating from Haydn’s stay in Vienna - was identified by Dr Walter Reicher, secretary general of the International Joseph Haydn Private Foundation Eisenstadt, which has now acquired the painting.

Two other versions of the oil artwork are known to exist - one at the Staatliches Museum Schwerin in Germany and a second, once in the possession of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, but lost since the end of the Second World War in 1945.

The newly discovered portrait has been professionally restored at the Picture Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and is soon to go on public display at the Haydn House Eisenstadt in Austria.

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