Portrait: Clara Schumann

The Great Pianist and Composer in Her Later Years

This portrait of Clara Schumann was painted by Franz von Lenbach in 1878. At the time, she was 59 years old and still one of the most active and highly-regarded pianists in Europe. Schumann’s life had already been marred by tragedy; her husband died in a psychiatric institution 22 years earlier and she subsequently endured the loss of two children. By t…