Original oversized pencil portrait of celebrated Czech composer Antonin Dvorak accomplished by an unknown artist on an off-white 14.5 x 22.5 sheet, handsomely displayed in its original 20 x 28 wooden frame. In very good to fine condition. The consignor notes that this portrait was given to the virtuoso violoncellist and close friend of Dvorak, Bedrich Vaska (1879-1978), who was one of Dvorak's last composition students: "Vaska's second wife and widow, Lydia King Vaska (1913-2002) did not know the name or have any information about the artist who made this portrait. The artist had to have been Czech and certainly living in Prague. Lydia told me that Dvorak gifted the portrait to her husband in the months prior to his departure to the USA in 1892…The frame is the original from the period and Bedrich Vaska brought it to the USA with all of his possessions in 1911."
