Autograph letter (unsigned) to her mother Lea, incorporating a drawing and an autograph manuscript song, Rome, 15 March 1840

Fanny Mendelssohn (later Hensel, 1805-1847)
Autograph letter (unsigned) to her mother Lea, incorporating a drawing and an autograph manuscript song, Rome, 15 March 1840
In German. Four pages, 260 x 203mm, bifolium, opening with a small drawing of a child in a cradle, and an autograph music manuscript, 32 bars on six staves, some lettering heightened in liquid gold, ending with two postscripts signed by her son, Sebastian, and husband, Wilhelm Hensel. Paper blindstamped ‘Superfine Bath’. Provenance: Sotheby's, 29 November 1985, lot 159.

A birthday drawing, song and letter for her mother during her Italian journey. The music is for a trio for two sopranos and an alto, on a text beginning 'Sage mir, was mein Herz begehrt'. The letter opens with warm birthday wishes for her mother, and goes on to give an enthusiastic description of their travels in Italy, particularly of the Carnival in Rome, which exceeds even her expectations.

Fanny Hensel was four years older than her brother Felix Mendelssohn, to whom she was very close: although a gifted pianist and composer, she rarely performed in public and few of her compositions were published in her lifetime. Her trip to Rome with her husband and 9-year-old son in 1839-40 was the fulfillment of a long-held wish: they stayed in Rome from November 1839 to June 1840, enjoying the lively community around the Académie de France at Villa Medici, where Fanny's private performances brought her a degree of recognition. The trip inspired several compositions over the following years.