カール・フリードリヒ・アーベル

In 1765 two German musicians living in London began selling tickets by subscription to a series of concerts. The Bach-Abel concerts ran for nearly 20 years and set the pattern for commercial concert-giving in England. One of the pair was Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of Johann Sebastian. The other is the man in this picture. Carl Friedrich Abel had arrived in London in 1759 and was among the last of the great players on the viola da gamba, the six-string bowed instrument held between the knees that the cello was steadily pushing out of use, and here he sits with it, in a red coat over a flowered waistcoat. Gainsborough painted him around that same year. The two were close, and Abel taught him the instrument, so the way the hand sits on the bow is a player's rather than a painter's guess. In return for the lessons Abel was paid in pictures and drawings.