Beethoven 390 by Andy Warhol presents the composer seated at a writing desk, caught mid-gesture as he records music on a sheet of paper. Beethoven’s face appears in a saturated cobalt blue, sharply contrasted against a deep black background. His unruly hair reads as a pale cream yellow, almost glowing, while a vivid red ascot anchors the composition at the center. Fine blue and violet contour lines trace his facial features, hands, and clothing. Across the surface, handwritten musical notation floats over Beethoven’s figure, merging image and sound into a single, compressed visual field.
Beethoven 390 and the Beethoven Complete Portfolio
Beethoven 390 is one of four screenprints from Warhol’s Beethoven Complete Portfolio, published in 1987. For the series, Warhol reworked Joseph Karl Stieler’s 1820 portrait of Beethoven, Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis. While the source image remains constant, Warhol radically alters the emotional register through color. In this print, the blue complexion and stark contrasts create a cool, almost detached intensity, setting it apart from the more ominous or sickly tones seen in other variations.
Color, Line, and Musical Notation
The overlay of musical notation plays a central role in Beethoven 390. Warhol references Beethoven’s Sonata No. 14, commonly known as the Moonlight Sonata. The notes drift across the composition in muted blues and grays, partially obscuring Beethoven’s body. As a result, the act of composition becomes inseparable from the composer himself. Warhol treats music as both subject and texture, reinforcing the idea that Beethoven’s fame derives as much from his labor as from the mythology surrounding him.
Beethoven 390 in Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Unlike Warhol’s portraits of contemporary celebrities such as Mao or Mick Jagger, Beethoven 390 turns to a historical figure whose reputation was secured long before mass media. Even so, Warhol places Beethoven firmly within his own canon of fame. By doing so, he collapses the distance between classical genius and modern celebrity. The print suggests that notoriety, whether earned through music or media, ultimately operates through image.
Photo Credit: Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis, portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820.
