Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis

The portrait is in oil on canvas and shows Beethoven in a deep blue frock coat with a large white collar and red scarf. Alexander Wheelock Thayer wrote that the painting was "sketchy" and never fully finished. Alessandra Comini stated that the portrait included "all the elements dear to future mythmakers", including "genius inspired by inner voices in the presence of nature, with leonine hair writhing wildly in symbolic parallel to the seething turbulence of creativity". ==Creation==

The painting was started in 1819 and completed in April 1820. requiring that Stieler finish painting the body and the portrait's background without him. As a result, according to Alessandra Comini, "Beethoven's arms are not convincingly attached to his shoulders"; later versions of the portrait address this by omitting the arms entirely. Upon completion the portrait was exhibited alongside the Dietrich bust. ==Ownership history==

The portrait's early ownership history is "obscure"; it may have been briefly held by the Brentano family. From 1909 the painting was owned by Henri Hinrichsen of Leipzig, a music publisher with an extensive art collection. This collection, including the portrait of Beethoven, was plundered by the Nazis; Hinrichsen was killed in the Holocaust. After the end of the Second World War in 1945 Henri's son Walter successfully reclaimed some of Henri's collection and brought the portrait to New York City. In 1981 he had a copy made and sold the original to the Beethoven-Haus. ==Reproductions==

Stieler painted a miniature version of the portrait on ivory. This he gave to Antonie Brentano. Lithographs of the portrait were published by Artaria in 1826; ==References==