Painted portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1820, a mane of wild grey hair, heavy brows, white open collar and red scarf, against a muted oxblood red ground

Portraits · Composers · III of XVII

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770–1827 · Composer and pianist

My motto is always: Nulla dies sine linea, and if I ever let the Muse sleep, it is only that she may awaken all the stronger.

Es heißt übrigens bei mir immer: Nulla dies sine linea, und lasse ich die Muse schlafen, so geschieht es nur, damit sie desto kräftiger erwache.

Ludwig van Beethoven · letter to an old friend, 1826
Read it in the source →

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote this in 1826 to Franz Wegeler, his friend since their youth in Bonn. He was fifty-five, deaf, and had only months to live. The Latin, 'no day without a line', comes from Pliny's story of the painter Apelles, who never let a day pass without drawing.

A quarter of a century earlier he wrote out this violin sonata.

Letter to Franz Gerhard Wegeler, Vienna, dated 7 October 1826. Beethoven's Letters, ed. A. C. Kalischer, trans. J. S. Shedlock, vol. II (London: Dent, 1909), p. 450 (letter MCXC). German: Ludwig van Beethovens Briefe, ed. Albert Leitzmann (Leipzig: Insel, 1909), p. 243.

The originals

Oil portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1820, wild grey hair, a stern look, white collar and red scarf against dark foliage
The likenessPAINTED BY JOSEPH KARL STIELER · 1820Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (Stieler died 1858; faithful reproduction of a 2D work, PD-Art). Wikimedia Commons. Cropped above the Missa solemnis manuscript and its lettering.
First page of a handwritten score in brown ink marked Allegro, violin above piano, headed 'Sonata' and 'da L. v. Beethoven'
Violin Sonata, Op. 24, 1801Published in Vienna in 1801. He headed the page himself, 'da L. v. Beethoven'. The name 'Spring' was given by others, not by him.Autograph score, first page. Austrian National Library, Vienna. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.