Beethoven (Mähler)

There are at least two surviving portraits created by German painter Joseph Willibrord Mähler in oils of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. One, painted in approximately 1804 or 1805, is the first of up to four untitled portraits the painter made of the composer. Today it hangs in the Beethoven Museum in Probusgasse, Vienna, part of the Vienna Museum. A copy of this painting, once owned by Beethoven’s biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer, is now owned by the New York Public Library. Mähler’s 1814 portrait of Beethoven exists in two versions, and is part of a series of portraits he made of Viennese composers at this time. The portrait of 1804–1805 Background Joseph Willibrord Mähler was introduced to Beethoven by the writer Stephan von Breuning (1774–1827). Though eventually a court secretary, Mähler was interested in music, was a good singer and did some composing. Beethoven took him to one rehearsal of Leonore in 1805. What is known about the painting stems from Alexander Wheelock Thayer’s biography. He first came across the original Mähler painting during a research visit (for his Beethoven biography) to Caroline Barbara van Beethoven (born Naske), the widow of Karl van Beethoven