The German violinist and composer Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1792) and his sister Maria Anna, nicknamed Nanerl (1751-1829), is seen here playing the violin with his son playing the harpsichord and his daughter singing. Leopold Mozart taught his children himself, and taking advantage of the 18th century craze for ‘child prodigies’ Leopold and his wife took their talented children on a grand but punishing European tour from July 1763 until November 1766 where they appeared for the crowned heads of Europe and at fashionable concerts, their virtuoso performances astonishing their audiences

This lithograph printed in 1764 is a reproduction of a pencil, gouache and watercolour portrait painted in Paris in 1763 by Louis Carrogis (1717-1806), the dramatist, painter, architect and author also known as Carmontelle. A talented and extraordinarily prolific self-taught artist who enjoyed sketching his contemporaries, it was his job at the time to provide theatrical performances for the family of Louis Philip, Duke of Orléans. The original portrait is in the collection of the Musée Condé, in the Chateau at Chantilly.

Although Mozart would have been eight in 1764 when this print was made, its title refers to 1763 when the original was painted and his sister was eleven.