Articles: Hermann Junker’s Portrait of Beethoven Composing at the Piano, Owned by the C.R.M.B.
Articles – Luigi Domenico Bellofatto – Hermann Junker’s portrait of Beethoven composing at the piano
by Luigi Domenico Bellofatto – Painting owned by the C.R.M.B.
The C.R.M.B. www.lvbeethoven.org has acquired an important portrait of the composer: the painting executed by Hermann Junker in 1869. Before discussing the portrait itself, it is useful to become acquainted with its author.
Hermann Philipp Ludwig Friedrich Junker was born in Frankfurt, Goethe’s native city, on 18 September 1838. He received his first artistic training at the Städel Art Institute, as a pupil of the renowned professor Jacob Becker. He studied anatomy and subsequently worked under Professors von der Launitz, Chr. Gustav Lucae, and Ed. von Steinle. Later, under Schög, he learned the painterly style of Professor Carl Hausmann, who at that time was active in Frankfurt. Hausmann painted in the manner of the old Dutch masters, especially Rembrandt, and Junker’s first major painting, Auerbach’s Keller (1861), fully reflects this technique. Junker visited Paris in 1862–63, where he met Courbet. He is later found in the Netherlands, studying the old Flemish masters. In 1865 he returned to Frankfurt, establishing himself permanently in his native city, which he left only for brief study trips. He died in Frankfurt on 10 February 1899.
Numerous are Junker’s paintings, the most famous of which are his portrait of Beethoven and his works on Goethe: a cycle of twelve paintings depicting episodes from the poet’s life.
For further details on these works, one may consult the following website.
His cycle of twelve paintings illustrating Goethe’s pilgrimage through existence was reproduced throughout the world and had the honour of remaining on display in its original form in the German monastery of Wolfgang’s birthplace. These paintings also enabled him to come into personal contact with Goethe’s grandchildren. Among his other works we may recall: The Examination Committee (1865); Poetry and Prose; Gretchen’s Church; and a painting and drawing of a woman during the war of 1870–71. In 1864 he published an anatomical study on the female form, followed by Mignon, Images of Ancient Jewish Family Life, and many others. In artistic circles, however, it was Junker’s Beethoven that aroused the greatest emotion, and it was reproduced many times, especially in black‑and‑white prints and lithographs. The painting also achieved resounding success at the first great international exhibition in Munich.
A German newspaper of the time described it as follows:
It depicts Beethoven at the time when he composed his famous “Eroica”. The great ancient creator of music appears absorbed in himself and removed from the world; every sharply defined feature of his face, every aspect of his gaze shows us that the noble composer is hearing for the first time the melodies that the people of his time and of posterity will hear from him in wonder and resolve, and which are eternal! The extinguished candle indicates a drowsy night and casts little light upon the master’s powerful figure; the morning light breaking through the window forms a magnificent contrast and demonstrates that Junker is a master of colour, or a pupil of the finest masters of chiaroscuro. The plaster mask brought back to life and the passionate study of all existing portraits now served as Junker’s guide in creating a head that is realistic and yet transfigured. The painting achieved resounding success at the first great international exhibition in Munich [1883].
Returning to the painting, on its reverse appears an interesting inscription on a sheet of paper that establishes its provenance:
Dem Verfasser des poetischen Beethoven-Album Herrn Hermann Landau zur f.[reundlichen] E.[rinnerung] an Herrmann Junker Frankfurt a[m]/m[ain] 1877 Aus d. Sammlung Lanna
From this it is clear that the painting was given by the artist to the scholar Hermann Joseph Landau (Prague, 19 June 1815 – Prague, 2 February 1889). Landau wrote a collection of essays on Beethoven entitled Erstes poetisches Beethoven-Album. Zur Erinnerung an den grossen Tondichter und an dessen Säcularfeier, begangen den 17. Dezember 1870, published in Prague in 1872 (second edition 1877), which may be found in full on our website in the articles section under “Beethoven-Album: ein Gedenkbuch”.
The portrait later became part of the collection of Freiherr Adalbert von Lanna, Prague (1836–1909); his collection was auctioned in Berlin in 1911. Landau lived in Prague, as did Lanna. From various newspaper articles of the time, it appears that this portrait of Beethoven was executed by Hermann Junker around 1869. It is interesting to compare this portrait of Beethoven composing with another painted around 1885 by Carl Bernhard Schlösser (born in 1832 in Darmstadt and deceased in 1914 in London), reproduced below. When placed side by side, the two works offer two romantic visions of Beethoven at work in the rooms of his home. One may say that Schlösser emphasizes more strongly the disorder of the scores and the numerous sheets scattered throughout Beethoven’s room. That Beethoven himself worked in this manner, with a small table beside the piano, is suggested not only by the nature of his sketches but also by the descriptions of his rooms provided by various visitors, some of whose testimonies are given below:
The salon in which he greeted me was anything but splendidly furnished and, moreover, was as untidy as his hair. Here I found a large old piano, and on the music stand the text of a cantata (Der glorreiche Augenblick) by Weissenbach; on the keys lay a pencil with which he sketched his work; and beside it, on a sheet of scribbled music paper, I found a series of the most divergent ideas, noted without any connection, individual details of the most heterogeneous kind clashing with one another, just as they may have come into his mind. This was the material for his new cantata. (J. W. Tomaschek, 1814)
Imagine the dirtiest and most disorderly place one can conceive: damp stains covered the ceiling; an old grand piano on which dust contended for space with various engraved and handwritten pieces of music; beneath the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied chamber pot; beside it, a small walnut table frequently used by the secretary; a quantity of pens encrusted with ink, beside which the proverbial tavern pens would shine; then more music. (Baron de Tremont, 1809)
He rarely picked something up without dropping or breaking it. Thus, more than once, he overturned the inkwell into the piano that stood next to his desk. (Ferdinand Ries, 1801–1805)
While Beethoven was enjoying a beer, he would suddenly pull out his notebook and write something in it. “Something came to me,” he would say, putting it back in his pocket. The ideas he jotted down separately, with only a few lines and dots and without bar lines, are hieroglyphs that no one can decipher. Thus, in these tiny notebooks he concealed a treasure of ideas. (Wilhelm von Lenz, 1855)
