Plaster Bust Ludwig van Beethoven Painted circa 1930

Painted plaster bust of Ludwig van Beethoven, likely produced in the second quarter of the twentieth century. The head and high cravat are finished in a warm cream tone, the coat and base in glossy black lacquer. The name Beethoven is modelled in relief across the front of the base. Beneath the black lacquer, light wear reveals the plaster in places.

The type derives from the iconography established in the nineteenth century: the unkempt hair, the heavy brow, the inward gaze. The life mask taken by Franz Klein in 1812 and the later busts by Hugo Hagen formed the iconographic basis for a long line of popular reproductions that, well into the twentieth century, stood in living rooms, music cabinets and on pianos. This bust belongs to that tradition: not a studio sculpture, but a domestic tribute to the composer, produced for a wide public that wanted to make room for Beethoven beside the sheet music.