Dvorák wrote his eleventh string quartet in 1881 during a shortage of time while composing the opera Dimitrij. The whole four-movement piece took about a month of work, and Dvorák included some of his older themes in it. The piece was to be premiered in Vienna by Josef Hellmesberger’s quartet, to whom it was dedicated, but the deal was cancelled and the quartet was performed several times in Germany and in Prague. It was published in 1882 by Simrock, also in a piano four hands arrangement by Josef Zubatý. The current edition of the parts is published within the first Complete Edition of the Works of Antonín Dvorák.