Schumann, 1853

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856), at the age of 44
Drawing, partly coloured and heightened with white, by Jean-Joseph-Bonaventure Laurens, Düsseldorf,
14-16 October 1853
Heinrich Heine Institut in Düsseldorf

One of several drawings of Robert Schumann made by the French painter and graphic artist Laurens, together with a portrait of Clara Schumann and several images of Johannes Brahms, aged 20, at the flat on Bilkerstraße 15 in Düsseldorf 'nach den lebendenModellen' ['after the living models']. Laurens recalls of the meeting that Schumann had not talked much with him "wie mit allen übrigen" ["like with everyone else"]- something Friedrich Hebbel had already bitterly complained about -, and that he had noted the striking dilation of Schumann's pupils upon which Clara Schumann had confessed to him "in großer Besorgnis"["with great concern"] "daß ihr Mann krank sei" ["that her husband was ill"]. 

(I.B., translated by Thomas Henninger)