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Grand piano
John Broadwood & Son (English, active 1795–1808)
1796
Object Place: London, England
Medium/Technique
Satinwood, purpleheart, tulipwood
Dimensions
Length 248.7 cm, width 111.5 cm, case height 28.4 cm, height with legs 91.2 cm (Length 97 15/16 in., width 43 7/8 in., case height 11 3/16 in., height with legs 35 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
From the George Alfred Cluett Collection, given by Florence Cluett Chambers
Accession Number1985.924
CollectionsEurope, Musical Instruments
ClassificationsMusical instruments – Chordophones
Provenance1796, commissioned of the maker by Manuel de Godoy, Prime Minister of Spain, 1792-1808. It is uncertain if he presented it as a gift to Queen Maria Luisa. The piano's whereabouts between 1808, when Godoy, Maria Luisa, and Carlos IV were deposed, and when it surfaced in Paris are uncertain. There is speculation that it came into the possession of Fernando VII, who was restored to the Spanish throne in 1814. Before 1912, sold by source unidentified, Paris, France (where the object's whereabouts can next be substantiated), to Robert William Hudson, London, England; June 1920, sold by Hudson through Frank Partridge (dealer) to William Hesketh Lever, a.k.a. the first Viscount of Leverhulme, London, England; February 1926, sold at auction of the Viscount Leverhulme Collection to George Cluett, New York; before 1979, by inheritance to his daughter, Florence Cluett Chambers, Sea Island, Georgia; by 1979, loaned by Cluett Chambers to Historic Deerfield, Inc., Deerfield, Massachusetts; 1985, gift of Cluett Chambers to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 22, 1986)
Grave, from Sonata in C minor (Op. 13, "Pathetique"), 1799
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performed by Peter Sykes