The first existing portrait of Beethoven, was painted around 1800 by Gandolph Ernst Stainhauser von Treuberg. This was one of the earliest portraits of Beethoven. It was created after Beethoven first became successful in Vienna. In 1801, Johann Joseph Neidl created a copper engraving that was based on this portrait1. The portrait is now considered lost.
Лейпцигский издатель Franz Anton Hoffmeister также заказал гравированную версию портрета Карлу Риделю ( Karl Traugott Riedel). 2
Robert Bory, "Ludwig van Beethoven His Life and His Work in Pictures": Сохранился также портрет маслом, подписанный именем Bock или Boch. Неизвестно, является ли этот портрет копией работы Штайнхаузера или наоборот (частная коллекция, Берлин).
Beethoven's contemporaries described the 30 year old composer as a small and inconspicuous person with an ugly face riddled with pockmarks. Carl Czerny, then a Beethoven student, even compared Beethoven to Robinson Crusoe as his unruly pitch-black hair was a mess on his head.