Large Tragic Mask of Beethoven

1901 · The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

portrait

Bourdelle made more than 40 depictions of the great composer. For him, Beethoven became the embodiment of creative energy, which is conveyed here by the expressive painterly treatment of the material, accentuating volume by means of texture and line. The empty and strangely convex eye sockets in this face without a gaze intensify the sense of a force bursting it apart from within, which seems to originate from the mighty arch of the tightly pressed lips.

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About the Artist

Émile-Antoine Bourdelle

1861 – 1929

French sculptor, painter and draughtsman. After working with his father, a cabinetmaker, in 1876 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. In 1884 he was admitted as a pupil of Alexandre Falguière to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but in rebellion against academic training left two years later. He then moved into a house (now the Musée Bourdelle) in the Impasse du Maine; Jules Dalou, for whom he had the greatest admiration, lived near by. From 1893 to 1905 he worked in the studio of Auguste Rodin, who had a marked influence on Bourdelle's art. His major works include 21 busts of Ludwig van Beethoven (executed between 1888 and 1929). As the result of his Baroque theatrical works, Bourdelle was appointed as the official memorial artist of the Third Republic. In addition to his monumental sculptures and portraits, his oeuvre included watercolours, frescoes, and book illustrations, all of which bear testimony to the versatility of this French artist of the fin de siècle who was second only in importance to Rodin.

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