Ludwig van Beethoven beim Spaziergang in der Umgebung Wiens - Gemälde von Wilhelm Faßbender, Fotografie von Karl Steinle, Bonn, 1937

As early as in the first half of the 19th century, the enthusiasm for Beethoven's "Sinfonia Pastorale" in F Major, op. 68 (the composer's Sixth Symphony) caused, that several fine artists dealt with Beethoven's depiction while he was going for a walk. During the second half of the century, when the romantic admiration for Beethoven had reached its first peak, this theme became more and more popular. It became popular to link the depiction of Beethoven in the nature with the theme of his deafness and the resulting isolation. At the same time, it was popular to interpret the composer's loneliness with "escapism". In the sense of this romantic point of view, several painters showed Beethoven strolling lonely through the area of Vienna - lost within himself and melancholic. The isolation of the composer from other human beings, was often interpreted as self-chosen turning to "holy" nature.

Beethoven himself delivered the biographical indication for this point of view by leaving the "Heiligenstadt Testament". In this letter to his brothers, the approximately 30-year-old Beethoven expressed with moving words his despair of the beginning deafness. Since this text was always interpreted as biographical testimony in the 19th century, painters and graphic artists could show Beethoven as the great misunderstood and lonely master, who only found consolation and understanding when being in the divine nature.(S.B.)