Ludwig van Beethoven - Gemälde von Carl Jaeger aus dem Jahr 1870, Fotografie, um 1984

The original of this very popular fantasy-portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven was probably painted in 1870 using grisaille (that is done in black, white and grey shades). When it was first published in the "Gallery of German musicians" (1870/71) by Fr. Bruckmann Publishers, it was accompanied by a text by the musicologist Eduard Hanslick as well as eleven busts of other German composers. Since then this very idealized likeness of Beethoven, which reflected the Romantic ideals in the second half of the nineteenth century, has been copied many times. It has often been mistaken for a painting which was done during Beethoven's lifetime and as being a true-likeness of the composer.(S.B.)