"Beethoven und die Blinde" oder "Mondscheinsonate" - Gemälde von Fritz Hermann Armin von etwa 1885-1895, Reproduktion, um 1925

The artist of this painting is Fritz Hermann Armin. He was not only interested in painting, but also in writing. He originated from Vienna and took turns in living and working there as well as in Munich. What made Armin famous were above all his genre and landscape painting, and his illustrations of magical and fantastic scenes.

His painting "Beethoven und die Blinde" ("Beethoven and the blind girl") illustrates the anecdote - which was popular in the 19th century - about the origin of the "Mondschein-Sonate" ("Moonlight Sonata"). According to the anecdote, Ludwig van Beethoven was on an evening walk when he heard someone playing the piano. It attracted him and he entered a room, where he found a blind girl playing her instrument. A variant on the story says that the composer spontaneously decided: "I want to play her the moonlight, since seeing it is not granted to her". And he played the first movement of a sonata in Cis Minor, which therefore got the name "Mondschein-Sonate".(S.B.)