Around Beethoven

Bourdelle realised more than 80 sculptures around the character of Beethoven, from 1888 to 1929. Presenting one single part of this big project, allows us to understand the evolution behind this huge project. Bourdelle is extremely inspired by Beethoven's genius and he highly recognises himself in his psychology. Bourdelle usually tends to sculpt Beethoven with distorted features like in this case where his face appears unrealistic. The reason for this is to transfer the suffering and pain of the artist to the audience. Overall, the number of pieces representing Beethoven appear very different and therefore are able to show the transition and growth of Bourdelle as a sculptor. Even at the end of his life, just before passing in 1929, Bourdelle kept sculpting Beethoven in a melancholic way as one of his last works.