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Charles Martin Loeffler 1861–1935
The German violinist and composer Charles Martin Loeffler studied music in Berlin and Paris. In 1882, he was recruited to join the new Boston Symphony Orchestra by its founder, Henry Lee Higginson, whose charcoal portrait by Sargent hangs nearby. Loeffler performed as a soloist with the orchestra for the first time in 1883. Just two years later, he became first violinist. He retired from the orchestra in 1903 but remained Boston's most progressive composer and an important figure in the musical life of the city.
Loeffler met Sargent in 1887, when the artist came backstage to congratulate him after a performance. This unusual full-length portrait suggests their friendly rapport. It shows Loeffler standing nonchalantly, cigarette in hand, in Sargent's studio before a model of the rotunda at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which Sargent would soon embellish with a series of murals and reliefs.
Charcoal and graphite on paper, 1917
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; bequest of Mrs. Elise Fay Loeffler
This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit. |