# Beethoven Bust



## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

For many years I have been looking for a copy of the only Beethoven bust that looks good to me. The one made by Franz Klein, from the life mask he made of Beethoven.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Beethoven_by_Franz_Klein_1812_Wien_SAM.jpg

The Beethoven house gift shop, Amazon, eBay, everywhere else online that I could think of.

I posted about my search back in 2015 on a Beethoven site:

http://www.gyrix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304

...at least I am not the only one, that thread was started in 2001 by someone engaged in the exact same search.

If any one can ever help, please let me know.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

There's another one with the same face, but with different hair. One of these is in an 'Antique' curio shop near me. It's a large thing though, probably weighs a ton. In black.

I also have a bust of Lenin.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Does anyone know how true a likeness it is, or how much it was tarted up to make him look like a Promethian hero?


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> Does anyone know how true a likeness it is, or how much it was tarted up to make him look like a Promethian hero?


given that the bust shows even the varicella scars, it might be quite accurate.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Mandryka said:


> Does anyone know how true a likeness it is, or how much it was tarted up to make him look like a Promethian hero?


Beethoven had a life mask made. We know exactly what he looked like, (at age 42 at least), you can judge for yourself:

https://goo.gl/ogTXfM

...the bust was done by the same sculpture who made the life mask.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

https://goo.gl/fHUznJ


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I don't think he was a bust at all!


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The head is not unnaturally large (even though Schindler said he had an enormous head); he has a big forehead though -- and the artist has taken pains to make it powerful, wide, rounded and prominent; his nostrils are flaring. 

The bust gives the impression of powerful, genial, savagery.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Here's Ludwig's life-mask morphed via Photoshop into a seeming photograph. Very interesting!


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Looks like a rough type if you ask me.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Larkenfield said:


> Hard to imagine a more authentic looking bust of the master than this... And it's affordable but not inexpensive: https://www.museumstorecompany.com/...MIxOjl2IKd3gIVhqDsCh1a-gkrEAQYAiABEgLIqfD_BwE


I think the one in my original post is the best I've ever seen....


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

..................


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

This one is on Amazon for USD44. 13.5 inches high, weight about 5 pounds. Bonded resin, which is a mix of marble powder and resin. There are other choices on Amazon as well.


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Here's Ludwig's life-mask morphed via Photoshop into a seeming photograph. Very interesting!


These are the best depictions for me of the "real Beethoven" (which actually were made based on that same mask):


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Good pics! So where'd Waldmüller get _this _guy?


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Bought this used one month ago.
I'm very happy with it.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

KenOC said:


> This one is on Amazon for USD44. 13.5 inches high, weight about 5 pounds. Bonded resin, which is a mix of marble powder and resin. There are other choices on Amazon as well.


I honestly think that bust is terrible. The nose looks absolutely nothing like Beethoven. I'm pretty sure I have seen every bust on Amazon and they are all as bad as this one.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

This one's 30" high and weighs 71 lbs. Only $3,000 (plus shipping).

https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Bronze...?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1540344078&sr=1-62


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

God awful. The eyes and nose are both wretched.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Good pics! So where'd Waldmüller get _this _guy?


I have long wondered about that. Perhaps Beethoven didn't have time and sent Schindler to go sit for the portrait.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

jdec said:


> These are the best depictions for me of the "real Beethoven" (which actually were made based on that same mask):


Looking around on the web, I notice the first one is by Madame Tussaud's. But I can't find any information on the second. Do you know anything about it?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Another bust of Beethoven. Carl (Karl) Holz was second violin in the Schuppanzigh Quartet, which premiered Beethoven's late quartets. He was a close friend of Beethoven and served as his secretary in later years.


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Looking around on the web, I notice the first one is by Madame Tussaud's. But I can't find any information on the second. Do you know anything about it?


Actually is the 2nd one which I understood was in the Madame Tussauds, and the first one made by a guy named Jethro Crabb (maybe for a museum too?), but I don't know more about it:

http://www.sculpturecommission.com/wax-figures/


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Saw this one in the Belvedere in Vienna today. Don't reckon it's for sale, but you can always ask......


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

lextune said:


> I think the one in my original post is the best I've ever seen....


OK. Maybe so. But have you ever thought of thanking those who have expending some effort to search on your behalf? The link I posted is to a bust of one of the finest reproductions that you or anyone else will ever see that's actually _affordable_. It has tremendous detail and you didn't even notice because you're so fixated on just that one image that you like, almost as if you're delighted that everyone is failing according to your standards. There's more than one bust of Beethoven out there that captures his spirit, and whether perfect or not, different examples have been presented that might be of interest to others, even if not you.

https://www.museumstorecompany.com/ludwig-van-beethoven-life-mask-museum-replicas-collection/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxOjl2IKd3gIVhqDsCh1a-gkrEAQYAiABEgLIqfD_BwE


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Larkenfield said:


> almost as if you're delighted that everyone is failing according to your standards.


This is extremely strange. You are reading a lot into my words. 
I am just sharing my opinion, on topic, in a thread that I started; not offering some performance for you to interpret.


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