Chopin portrait bought at flea market is from 19th century

WARSAW – A peeling representation of Frederic Chopin purchased astatine a flea marketplace successful Poland hung modestly successful a backstage location for astir 3 decades earlier an adept dated the coating to the 19th century, erstwhile the Polish soft composer lived.

Now restored and successful a gilded frame, the tiny coating resides successful a slope vault determination successful eastbound Poland portion its owners negociate their adjacent steps, including a nationalist exhibit.

News of the artwork's beingness broke this week arsenic Warsaw hosted the 18th Frederic Chopin Piano Competition, an planetary lawsuit known for launching the careers of world-class pianists. The contention runs done Oct. 23.

Nicolaus Copernicus University prof Dariusz Markowski, the creation adept who examined and restored the representation past year, says it has important historical and affectional value, but helium refrained from estimating what it mightiness merchantability for.

The coating measures 29.5 centimeters by 23.3 centimeters (11.5 inches by 9 inches.) Using precocious methods, Markowski timed its instauration to the mid-19th period based connected the materials and pigments used, and the grade of the ageing and damage.

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But it is not present imaginable to pinpoint the nonstop twelvemonth of its provenance, and it volition beryllium hard to place who painted it due to the fact that lone the artist's archetypal name, Alfred, is preserved, helium said.

“It is evidently Chopin, but I cannot accidental whether helium posed for this representation oregon whether it was painted from different picture,” said Markowski, main of the Torun university's Conservation and Restoration of Modern Art Department.

“We cognize thing of its past oregon who it was painted for," helium told The Associated Press. "It was successful a precise atrocious state, and I'm truly blessed that artwork similar this tin beryllium saved."

Chopin was calved successful 1810 successful a manor location successful Zelazowa Wola, a colony adjacent Warsaw, to a Polish parent and a French father. He near Poland astatine 19 to broaden his euphony acquisition successful Vienna and past successful Paris, wherever helium settled, composing, giving concerts and teaching piano.

He died successful Paris connected Oct. 17, 1849 and is buried astatine the Pere Lachaise cemetery, but his bosom is kept astatine the Holy Cross Church successful Warsaw, wherever observances people the anniversaries of his commencement and death.

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An creation connoisseur spotted the representation that Markowski calls “a existent curiosity” astatine a flea marketplace adjacent Lublin successful the aboriginal 1990s. Decades later, a fiscal concern prompted the household to question a nonrecreational appraisal, which led them to the assemblage expert.

A subordinate of the household says it's “extraordinary” that the coating survived astir 170 years of historical turmoil and ended up successful a flea market. He says the family's caller attraction to the representation made him survey Chopin's beingness and music.

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