Facing Beethoven

In
1812 the sculptor Franz Klein was commissioned by the piano manufacturing family
Streicher to prepare a bust of Beethoven for a gallery of composers. Beethoven
agreed to have a plaster cast of his face made so that the bust would
correspond with his appearance as authentically as possible. To this end,
Beethoven’s face had to be oiled and then coated with wet plaster of Paris. Two
tubes were inserted into his nostrils so that he could breathe. But fearing
that he would die of asphyxiation, Beethoven tore the plaster mask off his face
so that the first attempt failed. The second try was successful.

The
“negative form” created in this way was then filled out with plaster to form
the life mask. Franz Klein used this model to make the face of the bust. The
aura of authenticity turned the mask into a standard model for other
representations, some of which appeared much later. However, this authentic
aspect should be seen from a particular point of view. Beethoven felt that the
whole procedure was taking far too long, so that the tightly pressed lips
represent not only his willpower, but also that he was trying to keep the
plaster of Paris from dripping into his mouth. And his eyes had to remain shut.

The painting is a copy of the famous portrait by Joseph Stieler.

Stieler did not
attempt to make an entirely realistic picture of the composer, but augmented it
with the aura of Beethoven’s life and work. Thus, vegetation can be seen in the
background, suggesting the importance of nature as a source of inspiration for
Beethoven. The composer is looking into the distance. Even in past times this
had been a way of alluding to the special ability of musicians to recognise and
see things that other people are not able to. At the same time it shows the
composer’s achievement of bringing these ideas into an artistic form, here
represented by the composition of the Missa Solemnis (Op. 123), the
title of which can be seen on the page in Beethoven’s own handwriting and which
he considered one of his most important works. 

Beethoven died on 26 March 1827. Several
thousand people followed the coffin in the funeral procession.
The painter Josef Danhauser made the death
mask only a few hours after Beethoven passed away. Danhauser had to wait
until a barber had shaved Beethoven’s face.






Only a few decades earlier, the preparation of
death masks had been reserved for kings and nobles. Beethoven’s mask is evidence
of the new status of artists in the early 19th century.

A death mask recorded the face of a person
shortly after his death. This preserved, as it were, the sum of a life
discernible in the face before it was lost forever.






The preparation of the mask was only possible
through direct, physical contact with the deceased, which gave the mask a
relic-like aura.

Death is the brother of Sleep, a wanderer
between the worlds, like the genius of the artist, it is said. This appears
to be the meaning of this copperplate engraving.






Lemud’s picture is set like a stage. Beethoven’s
earthly life in music is suggested in the foreground, while a supra-worldly
scene appears in the background. The composer lies asleep between these two
worlds.

An
orchestra of spirits or genies rises in the background while a couple dance
before it, alluding to the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus (Op. 43).
This points to the ability of the artist to make and shape things visibly and
audibly that are not accessible to normal mortals. In this sense, the artist
has a connection with a higher plane. This had already been part of Beethoven’s
image since the Romantic Age.

The
dark, melancholy figure with one hand reaching towards his ear suggests
Beethoven’s hearing impairment and his tragic fate, for its part giving rise to
the creative power in his works as, for instance, in the Fifth Symphony (Op.
67) with its famous Fate Motif.

Beethoven
is shown here as he sleeps. This condition opens new dimensions from which the
artist gathers inspiration for his painting. Correspondingly, Beethoven is
portrayed with the source of his creative production, a piano and a cello. His
productivity is indicated by the many scores and sheets of music on the
right-hand side of the picture.

This
picture from around the same time illustrates the impact of Beethoven’s music.
A house concert is taking place in a plainly furnished room. The people are
listening with deeply moved and rapt attention to the performance of
Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, the Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47.

The original was a large-format painting (2.70 x
1.30 m). The bright empty surface in the foreground seems to be inviting the
viewer to become one of the listeners. The picture was very popular and went on
tour throughout Europe. Its fame was further spread by means of the numerous
prints that were made of it.

Beethoven’s life mask can be seen on the wall in the background, appearing like the source of the music.

Unlike in a
public concert hall, the listeners could react to the music here in their own
individual way. They appear to be engrossed, listening with devotion. The modest
room could be a bohemian artist’s studio whose audience would be especially
open to the music and be able to appreciate it.

The
photographer Otto Haeckel gives us a view of a real atelier, that of the artist
Max Klinger in Leipzig. Klinger worked on a statue of Beethoven for interior display
between the years 1885 and 1902. It was publicly shown for the first time at
the 14th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1902. Beethoven is
enthroned on a pedestal. An eagle looks up at him, a symbol of Zeus and Jupiter
since antiquity.

In earlier
representations Beethoven was depicted as a great artist, but nevertheless as still
human, while here he is turned into a marble-sculpted, archaic, almost god-like
being.

Klinger used classical artefacts as the basis for Beethoven’s body.

Beethoven’s life mask, cast by Franz Klein, served as the model for the composer’s face.

The
sculptor himself appears small next to his own work. Klinger’s muse, Elsa
Asenieff, described the meaning of the work as follows:

“His pensively inclined body appears to find
support in the strong-willed balling of the fist. The eye dreams out into the
distance in which he finds his own inner nature. It is no longer the human
being Beethoven, but an enthroned genius, divest of all moments of time.”

The still life emphasises the metaphysical and superhuman dimensions of the composer.

The extinguished candle points to the
ephemerality of all earthly things. The life mask of Beethoven on the wall, crowned
with a laurel wreath, symbolises the immortality of his music, indicated by the
violin and the sheets of music.

Prechtl’s poster for the Beethoven Festival in Bonn in 1983 humorously illustrates a different side of the composer.

He is carrying a colourful cornucopia of music
under his arm and the picture of a woman in his hand. The look on his face
contradicts the seriousness of his down-turned lips, as if he were bashfully
indicating the sources of his art: women, nature, walks.

Due to the fame of his name and music Beethoven was often used as a motif in advertising.

His works supplied the background music for numerous products.
When his face was shown, it was usually taken from well-known portraits, such
as the painting by Stieler for an advertising campaign of the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004, here playing with the Beethoven motif and “myth”.