[classical music]. Handwritten in English, to an unidentified photographer discussing images which they have taken of her both en profil and en face. She requests two dozen of the photographs saying that she believes that 'copies will please very many in Germany, and I think you should send them to the different large places in Germany to be sold... Excuse my bad English... '

Clara Schumann (1819-1896), née Clara Josephine Wieck, was a German pianist, composer, and wife of the composer Robert Schumann. Encouraged by her father, Clara Wiek studied piano from the age of five and by 1835 had established a reputation throughout Europe as a child prodigy. In 1838, she was honoured by the Austrian court and she was also elected to the prestigious Society of the Friends of Music (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde) in Vienna.

Despite strong objections from her father, Clara married Robert Schumann in 1840 and they had eight children between 1841 and 1854. Although family responsibilities curtailed her career, she taught at the Leipzig Conservatory, composed, and toured frequently. From 1853, the Schumanns developed a close professional and personal friendship with the composer Johannes Brahms that Clara maintained after her husband's death in 1856. She edited the collected edition of her husband's works (published 1881–93). Her own compositions include works for orchestra (among them a piano concerto), chamber music, songs, and many character pieces for solo piano.

Her busiest years as a performer were after Robert Schumann's death. During this period, she experienced success as a performer in Great Britain, where her 1865 performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, was met 'with enormous applause'. As a chamber musician, she often accompanied the violinist Joseph Joachim and played songs frequently in recitals in the latter years of her career.

2pp. on a bifolium, 8vo (140 x 215mm /51/2 x 81/2 ins).; written in ink and signed 'Clara Schumann', Dusseldorf, 14 April 1877;