Beethoven mit Leier und Schriftrolle, in der Art des Apoll - Fotografie eines Denkmalentwurfs von Gustav Hermann Bläser

The sculptor Gustav Hermann Bläser, who worked in Berlin, very early thought of designing a statue of Ludwig van Beethoven. Already in 1836, only about 9 years after the death of Beethoven, he started planning it and he probably even made a model. Two years later, he showed the statuettes of Beethoven he had made so far for the first time in public. Bläser applied for the competition of the Beethoven statue in Bonn by handing in a daguerrotypy and a model.

Only an old depiction of Bläser's design of the Beethoven figure has been preserved. The figure originally was to stand on a pedestal, which showed allegories of religious and belligerent enthusiam, and of sadness and delight. A contemporary of Bläser wrote that this ensemble showed Beethoven as ruler of feelings through the power of his music.

The jury and the audience liked the idea of portraying feelings as allegories on a Beethoven statue. But Bläser's statue of Beethoven was rejected because the composer was not shown in a contemporary dress and, as a whole, it rather resembled an Orpheus or Apollo statue. That was quite the contrary of how the people around 1840 pictured a modern statue to a musician, who had just recently died. It was not before the second half of the 19th century that those ideas had become popular. Pictorial portrayals now started to show Beethoven more and more often with the characteristics of the Gods of the ancient world.(S.B.)