Portrait of Franz Liszt
by BARABÁS, Miklós, Oil on canvas, 132 x 102 cm
Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Hungarian-born pianist and composer. A Romantic icon and one of the first proponents of the orchestral tone poem, he was an unparalleled keyboard virtuoso and a supremely talented and innovative composer. He was also renowned as a mercurial personality and bandit of love; in short, like the flamboyant violinist Niccolò Paganini, Liszt lived the Romantic ideal to the hilt.
Listen to an example of Liszt’s piano music.