Constanze Mozart - Alleged Photograph

Alleged Photograph

A number of commentators allege that a surviving photographic image from the mid 19th century includes the 78-year-old Constanze Mozart. The picture was supposedly taken in Altötting in Bavaria in 1840. Not all Mozart scholars endorse this view, however. For instance, it is claimed that the picture was taken with a short exposure that, for technical reasons, was not yet possible in 1840. Selby (1999) states that there is no evidence in any of Constanze's extensive diaries and letters that she had contact with Keller after 1826, and that she could not have traveled to visit Maximillian Keller during the period when the photograph was taken, as she suffered from crippling arthritis at the time.

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