On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Beethoven
Franz von Stuck German
Beethoven’s face, which was modelled after his purported death-mask, projects from the blood-red background as if it were a hallucinatory vision emerging from a painting. By challenging the boundary between the physicality of sculpture and the illusion of painting, Stuck strove to convey the otherworldly power of the human imagination. A passionate admirer of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Stuck created the portrait as part of a series of famous men that embellished his residence, the Villa Stuck, outside Munich. Later versions, like this one, were made as independent works of art.
