Portrait of Isabella Colbran (Portrait of the first wife of the composer Rossini, Isabella Colbran, sitting at the grand piano)

At the time of its purchase for the "Sonderauftrag Linz", the work was attributed to the artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865).

The painting shows the singer Isabella Colbran (1785-1845), wife of the composer Giacomo Rossini (1792-1868), sitting at a grand piano in an interior room. At the right edge of the picture the grand piano can be seen with an open sheet of music. It bears the name of the Viennese piano maker Franz Werle, who is archivally attested to have worked between 1815 and 1818. In the background there is a wall with a floral pattern. The floor is tiled in black and white.

The work is neither signed nor dated.

The following indications can be taken from the reverse: in blue bold chalk, three times "8903" (Mü-Nr.), "1818" (Linz-Nr.); white label with perforated border in blue "1818" (Linz-Nr.); in white chalk "155/196 4" (not identified), "45" (not identified); white label with round stamp, in typewritten "BAYERISCHE STAATS- / GEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN / MÜNCHEN / Inv.-. Nr. L. 858 / BAYERISCHE STAATSGEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN MÜNCHEN / Waldmüller Ferd. / Isabella Colbran / first wife of / composer / Rossini" (borrower, after 1945).