Portraits of Mozart

Numerous historical paintings and other works of art purport to depict the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Of these, only a fraction can be shown by historical evidence to be authentic portrayals. The others are variously fraudulent, attribution errors, or sentimental works of the imagination. Of the authentic portraits, the posthumous 1819 painting by Barbara Krafft is the best known. The task of distinguishing authentic from inauthentic portraits has occupied Mozart scholars for many years.