JEAN-BAPTISTE CRAMER

The George Henry Harlow portrait, London, 1818. The portrait, long identified as the Duke of Wellington because of a provenance of ownership by descent from his own collection is of the pianist and music publisher J.B. Cramer, and a miniature version of the same painting survives in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Cramer gained the respect of Beethoven who considered him the finest pianist of the day from the standpoint of pure technical perfection. In turn it was Cramer that christened Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto “The Emperor” and as a founding member of the Royal Philharmonic Society was central in the commissioning of his 9th Symphony. He was one of the musicians that played with Nicolo Paganini (an engraving of Paganini from 1831 has him in the background) , and his 1835 Reminiscences de Paganini was one of the first works to explore Pagainini’s themes on the piano. The head is painted to a finished standard, but overall the portrait is unfinished and the unpainted hands are particularly prominent with a light brown wash over the vacant areas. This painting probably dates from a small period in 1818 between Cramer’s return from Vienna and Harlow’s departure for Rome. The artist known affectionately as ‘Clarissa Harlowe’ for his extravagance developed a reputation as an infant-terrible of the London art scene having been kicked out of Thomas Lawrences studio for insubordinate behaviour and was blackballed from the Royal Academy. Ultimately he travelled to the Accademia in Rome in 1818 in order to study old master paintings and correct his deficiencies. Upon arrival he was admitted a member on merit and was fêted by the artistic community. Antonio Canova was so impressed that he arranged an audience for him with the Pope. Upon Harlow’s return a sore throat developed into fatal glandular fever and he died shortly afterwards. Hence the intention to complete the painting and especially to paint the hands of the world’s greatest pianist went unfulfilled. Had Harlow survived his contemporaries had predicted him to become one of the most attractive painters of his generation. Instead his death was a moment of romantic tragedy (John Keats the poet also travelled to Rome that year in order to live out fatal tuberculosis). In 1819 he was buried under the altar of the artist’s church, St James’ Piccadilly. The NPG miniature which retains the characteristics of the unfinished state of this portrait seems to indicate its purpose to memorialise Harlow’s death as much as to celebrate the life of Cramer.. It has good claim to be Harlow’s last English work before his journey to Italy. The painting is currently undergoing significant restoration