Painted portrait of Edvard Grieg at forty-four, swept-back light hair, a full moustache and a black bow tie, against a fjord grey-blue ground

Portraits · Composers · XV of XVII

Edvard Grieg

1843–1907 · Composer and pianist

If there is in my music anything of lasting value it will live; if not, it will perish.

You express surprise that I endured all the stupidities of the critics so patiently instead of laying about with a club long ago. Well, had I done that, I would, in my opinion, have lost all that remained of my artistic pride. If there is in my music anything of lasting value it will live; if not, it will perish. That is my belief, for I am convinced that truth will prevail ultimately.

Edvard Grieg · letter to Henry T. Finck, 1905
Read it in the source →

Edvard Grieg wrote this in 1905 to the American critic Henry T. Finck, who was writing a book about him. Finck had wondered why he never hit back at the critics. Grieg's answer: doing so would have cost him his artistic pride. Time would sort out the music.

Letter to Henry T. Finck, Christiania, 29 September 1905. Henry T. Finck, Grieg and His Music (New York and London: John Lane, 1909), introduction 'With letters from Grieg', pp. xxv–xxvi.

The originals

Sepia photograph of Edvard Grieg in 1888, a mane of swept-back light hair, a full moustache and a large black bow tie, looking up and to the side
The likenessPHOTOGRAPHED BY ELLIOTT & FRY · 1888Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (London studio cabinet photograph, March 1888, published 1889 in The Leisure Hour). Wikimedia Commons. Crop removes the card mount, Grieg's signature and the studio imprint.
A handwritten title page in ink reading 2 Melodien til Digte af A. O. Vinje, komp. og bearbejdet for Strygeorkester, signed Edvard Grieg, op. 34
Two Elegiac Melodies, op. 34, 1880Title page of his autograph score: two of his songs to poems by Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, reworked for string orchestra. Dated at the end: Lofthus, 18 August 1880.Autograph score, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Music Department, W-6 (44), page 1 of 16 in the scan. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.