Bust of Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was 27 when he came to Florence in 1838, travelling through Italy with the writer Marie d'Agoult, and Bartolini modelled this bust of him during the stay, together with a portrait of her. The pianist visited the studio and later wrote about it in his published travel letters. The friendship had a practical side. In 1839 the town of Bonn was struggling to pay for a monument to Beethoven, and Liszt promised to cover much of the missing money himself. He wanted Bartolini to make the statue. The committee gave the commission to a sculptor from Dresden, Ernst Hähnel, and his bronze Beethoven was unveiled in Bonn in August 1845, with Liszt there for the celebrations. The bust had its own moment in Paris. A marble version was shown at the Salon of 1846 at Liszt's own request, and it is now in the Liszt House in Weimar, the town where he later settled. This plaster, 67 centimetres high, stayed in the Florentine studio.