1836
Clara Wieck as a seventeen-year-old girl
Pencil drawing, with watercolours, by Elwine von Leyser, signed and dated bottom right: Elwine v. Leyser. / Maxen d. 4. Dezember 1836 [Elwine v. Leyser. / Maxen, 4th December 1836]. The portrait is marked underneath: Clara Wieck.
Facsimile after the original at the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig
Elwine von Leyser was the sister of Hermann and Raimund Härte, the owners of the Leipzig music publisher Breitkopf & Härtel. 1836 saw the beginning of the separation of Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann, enforced by Friedrich Wieck. The drawing was made during this bitter phase at the castle and manor of major Friedrich Anton Serre in Maxen near Dresden. In 1846, Clara set to music Friedrike Serre’s poem O du mein Stern [Oh you my star].
(J.M.N., translated by Th. Henninger)