# HIP Beethoven - with a difference!



## Artemis (Dec 8, 2007)

Below is my attempt to construct a "HIP" portrait of our dear beloved Beethoven.

I have tried to make this as realistic as possible given the information available to me and my limited artistic skills. The way I did it was to:


Take as the starting point Beethoven's "life mask", which was produced in 1812 when he was age 42. I used a photo of the plaster mask itself, not the derived bronze mask or any other representations of the mask.
I then superimposed a pair of "eyes" based on an average of several portraits of Beethoven in his middle years.
The "hair" is also based on the average of several portraits of the same vintage. I avoided the temptation to over-do the wild hair ("leonine") look that some portraits suggest, which I believe is probably exaggerated.
The picture from neck down is based on German fashionable dress wear of the correct vintage, c 1810.
I fully realise that this effort is very amateurish and I make no great pretensions for it. But it does, I believe, reasonably approximate what Beethoven may have looked like at that stage of his life based on the only hard evidence we have, as opposed to the varying portraits. At least his broad facial features are correct, provided the "mask" is accurate.


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## Mark Harwood (Mar 5, 2007)

Nice one, Artemis.
Thanks for sharing.


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## Il Seraglio (Sep 14, 2009)

He obviously got much sexier when he got older.


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