Head of Beethoven (1891): Art, History and Details

Head of Beethoven (1891) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Emile Antoine Bourdelle (French, 1861–1929).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A pioneer of modern sculpture, Antoine Bourdelle studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and worked as an assistant to Augustin Rodin, who greatly admired the younger artist’s work. In 1888 Bourdelle produced the first of a series of sculptural portraits of Ludwig van Beethoven, in which the artist orchestrated powerful billowing shapes to convey the creative spirit or genius of the composer. The artist inscribed a quote from Beethoven in the lower left: “My domain is the air; when the wind rises my soul swirls.”

Object facts

• Title: Head of Beethoven
• Date: 1891
• Creator attribution: Emile Antoine Bourdelle (French, 1861–1929)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 59.2 x 42 x 52.1 cm (23 5/16 x 16 9/16 x 20 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1960.82

Collection credit

Gift of Carrie Moss Halle in memory of Salmon Portland Halle

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.