Ferruccio Busoni at the Piano, 1916

Like Max Oppenheimer (1885–1954), the progressive composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) was also in exile in Switzerland during World War I. It was there that the two artists met and the first portrait of the musician was created. Oppenheimer’s painting shows Busoni seated at the piano and focused on playing, surrounded by numerous sheets of music and a violin. The Cubist references in the composition combined with elements of the Futuristic stylistic idiom can be seen as an attempt to capture the sound of the piano on canvas, thus making painted music audible. The work received the Austrian State Prize for Painting in 1925 and since 1926 it has been part of the collection of the National Gallery of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, to which Oppenheimer sold it. The etching was also created in 1916 and shows Busoni in the same pose as on the painting.

AS, 2023