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Your galleryA Lamplight Study: Herr Joachim
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Follow the lamplight from Joachim’s lowered face down the bow to his right hand, then up the strings to his left fingers.
The Hungarian-born violinist Joseph Joachim (1831–1907) was a frequent guest at musical evenings at Little Holland House, where Watts came to know him. In 1867 Watts painted him by lamplight and kept that portrait for his own gallery. He agreed to paint a replica instead, and this canvas, dated 1868, is that replica.
Oil on canvas · 94 × 58.6 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
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Details and source
- Museum title
- A Lamplight Study: Herr Joachim
- Artist
- George Frederick Watts (English, 1817–1904)
- Date
- 1868
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 94 × 58.6 cm (37 × 23 in.); Framed: 98.2 × 76.9 × 5.8 cm (38 5/8 × 30 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Bequest of Charles L. Hutchinson
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Artist’s life 1817–1904
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.


