Beethoven's Scowl

[Michael]

Quite an entertaining podcast on how Beethoven was perceived down the years.

There are a few minor mistakes and one unfortunate sentence which states that the Heiligenstadt Testament was found in Beethoven's drawers.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/beeth...NMtt_6OJ5XOlGM

[Hollywood]

How many painted portraits from Beethoven's time and before his time, will you find the subject smiling? The same goes for when photography began, pretty much 100% of the people in the photographs aren't smiling. That's just the way it was back then.

Let's face it. As an adult Beethoven really didn't have too much to smile about. I'm sure there is someone out there who can take a photo of one of the Beethoven portraits and Photoshop a smile onto his face. But I love the original Beethoven portraits as they are. My oil painted copy of Christian Horneman's portrait is still hanging proudly on my living room wall.

[Peter]

How many painted portraits from Beethoven's time and before his time, will you find the subject smiling? The same goes for when photography began, pretty much 100% of the people in the photographs aren't smiling. That's just the way it was back then.

Let's face it. As an adult Beethoven really didn't have too much to smile about. I'm sure there is someone out there who can take a photo of one of the Beethoven portraits and Photoshop a smile onto his face. But I love the original Beethoven portraits as they are. My oil painted copy of Christian Horneman's portrait is still hanging proudly on my living room wall.

Well it wasn't easy to hold a smile for the length of time needed either for painting or for early photographs. There are plenty of anecdotes of Beethoven laughing!

[Albert Gans]

I'm with Peter on this one. The main reason for lacking smiling people on pictures in the past was the fact that holding a smile is quite difficult for any length of time. On top of that, portraits in paintings and early photographs were seen as a sort of status symbol... and one would expect people to be taken serious when seeing what they looked like.
And of course, we know about Beethoven's puns and jokes during his lifetime. Also in his music, there is humour (Rage for a lost penny) or at least irony.

[Decrepit Poster]

I don't fully buy into the idea that portrait subject frowned, on at least didn't smile, because it's hard to maintain a posed smile for the time it takes to paint one. However, I agree that it was likely 'politically correct' to be portrayed with a 'serious' expression. Certainly someone of B's stature would likely want to be portrayed 'seriously'?

[Michael]

A lot of posthumous paintings of Beethoven are based on the face mask which is supposed to give the most authentic representation of his features.

During this process, his face was completely covered with plaster and he had straws up his nose to help him breathe.

He actually panicked at one stage and pulled off the plaster and they had to make another attempt.

No wonder he was frowning.

[Peter]

Also factor in that he didn't enjoy having to pose for his portrait and you can see you'd be left with a rather serious looking scowler! Anyone who thinks Beethoven didn't smile or have a sense of humour doesn't know his music.

[Michael]

……...Anyone who thinks Beethoven didn't smile or have a sense of humour doesn't know his music.

Absolutely!

[Michael]

Entirely unrelated to this thread but I didn't want to start another. But this might have made Beethoven smile.

I've just watched an episode of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in which a gentleman in a wheelchair won half a million pounds by answering this question:

"To whom did Beethoven originally intend to dedicate his Eroica symphony?"

The usual four choices were given. Yeah - we Beethoven experts could answer that.
It was, of course, Marie Antoinette.

[Chris]

Ha! I didn't even know that show was still running.

[Michael]

It's not running continuously but crops up in short series in the UK, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.

[Chris]

It's not running continuously but crops up in short series in the UK, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.

Whoa, the old Top Gear guy? I might have to check that out.

[alittleviola]

So glad that I found this forum, and particularly this topic! In spite of the letters and bits of information that we have about Beethoven, I've always felt like his historical biography is a bit of a theory. (I guess you can say that about most biographies.) I think the "In Search of Beethoven" documentary (which is on YouTube) does a really good job of further exploring Beethoven's personality, with some of the those interviewed making the point that in fact he was a generally pleasant person who liked people and socializing. On his "off" days he could be abrasive and disagreeable, but he wasn't antisocial, necessarily.

One wonders how much of our impression of Beethoven is way off?

[Peter]

Welcome to the forum. I agree that we get a very skewed impression of Beethoven through the eyes of history. A lot of the negative anecdotes take little account of his suffering.

[alittleviola]

Welcome to the forum. I agree that we get a very skewed impression of Beethoven through the eyes of history. A lot of the negative anecdotes take little account of his suffering.

Thanks, Peter, and that's so true. The man suffered with his health one way or another for his entire life. What he achieved and gave to the world in spite of that is extraordinary.