This is what Beethoven Really Looked Like

This is how many people imagine the brilliant composer Ludwig van Beethoven: in a dressing gown and red scarf, his silvery hair like a lion's mane. He probably looked very different.

This mask was removed by the sculptor Franz Klein in 1812. Not an easy undertaking, because Beethoven was afraid of suffocating under the plaster. That's why he looks so grim.

In this fine watercolour you can see Beethoven at the height of his career. No wonder that he was welcome in the Viennese salons and popular with his piano students.

Perhaps Beethoven is not particularly well met in this drawing. But it does describe the situation well. Because Beethoven loved the coffee house. There he read the newspaper, smoked a pipe and met with his friends.

Beethoven had to sit four times as a model for the famous painting - a special achievement, since sitting still was not easy for him at all.

Some of these portraits were initiated by enterprising publishers, others were commissioned by friends and patrons. Everyone wanted to represent their Beethoven!

The more famous Beethoven became, the more people became interested in him. In the last years of his life, pictures of him were taken while walking in nature, in the inn and even on his hospital bed.