Ludwig van Beethoven, Schädel in drei Ansichten - Bleistiftzeichnung von Ludwig Theodor Choulant, Wien, 1888

On 21 June 1888 Beethoven's body was exhumed a second time, so that his mortal remains could be transferred to the Vienna Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof). This time there were only twenty minutes available for a medical examination, so the time was spent examining and measuring Beethoven's skull. It had disintegrated to such an extent that the surviving remains did not permit pouring a mould of the inside of the skull.

The drawing shown here was probably made on this occasion. In the old inventory of the Beethoven-Haus the following note was made about it: "Choulant, former Director of the Clinic at the Dresden medical-surgical Academy, is said to have made this drawing the second time Beethoven's body was exhumed in July 1888."(S.B.)