Research at NYPL, Doc Chat
Doc Chat Episode Twenty-Four: Seeing Beethoven
On April 15, 2021, Doc Chatters examined the many themes and symbols embedded in one painting of an iconic musician.
A weekly series from NYPL's Center for Research in the Humanities, Doc Chat pairs an NYPL curator or specialist and a scholar to discuss evocative digitized items from the Library's collections and brainstorm innovative ways of teaching with them. In Episode Twenty-Four, NYPL's Bob Kosovsky and Fredric Fehleisen of The Juilliard School discussed an early 19th-century portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven now owned by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, analyzing revealing details in the painting and considering the role of portraiture in defining the narrative of the composer's life and legacy.
Doc Chat Episode 24: Seeing Beethoven from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.
A transcript of this event is available here.
Below are some handy links to materials and sources suggested in the episode.
Episode Twenty-Four: Primary Sources
Bob and Fred discussed two paintings:
“Thayer’s Copy”: a portrait, circa 1808, by an unidentified artist of the painting of Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Willibrord Mähler, The New York Public Library of the Performing Arts. Access a high resolution image of this painting here.
The original 1804 Joseph Willibrord Mähler’s portrait of Beethoven, on which the above was modeled. Access a high resolution image of this painting here.
Episode Twenty-Four: Readings and Resources
Ludwig van Beethoven, Heiligenstadt Testament (unnamed translator).
Luigi Bellofatto and Owen Jander, "Thayer's Copy of the Mähler Portrait of Beethoven, ca. 1804,” Beethoven Journal 21, 2: (Summer 2006), 13-15.
Alessandra Comini, The Changing Image of Beethoven: a Study in Mythmaking (Sunstone Press, 2008).
Owen Jander, Beethoven's "Orpheus" Concerto: The Fourth Piano Concerto in its Cultural Context (Pendragon Press, 2009).
Owen Jander, “'Let Your Deafness No Longer Be a Secret—Even in Art': Self-Portraiture and the Third Movement of the C-Minor Symphony," Beethoven Forum 8,1: (2000), 25-70.
Owen Jander, "Orpheus Revisited: A Ten-Year Retrospect on the Andante con moto of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto” 19th-Century Music 19, 1: (Summer 1995), 31-49.
Alex Potts, “Winckelmann, Johann Joachim,” Grove Art online, 2003.
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Doc Chat episodes take place on Zoom every Thursday at 3:30 PM. During May we will cover a range of topics: the history of pop culture, LGBTQ+ struggles against criminalization, Depression-era images of New York City tenements, Russian propaganda posters, and much more.
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