Beethoven 391 by Andy Warhol presents Ludwig van Beethoven emerging from a near-black field. His face is rendered in deep gray tones while pale pink and blue outlines trace his features, hair, and coat. The composer appears partially absorbed into the darkness behind him. Handwritten musical notation in vivid pink and red drifts across the surface, visually binding Beethoven’s image to his work.
Beethoven 391 by Andy Warhol as Part of the Beethoven Portfolio
Published in 1987, the year of Warhol’s death, Beethoven 391 is one of four screenprints from the Beethoven Complete Portfolio. The series was published by Hermann Wünsche in Bonn, Germany and stands alongside Lenin and Camouflage as one of Warhol’s final projects. Rather than revisiting contemporary celebrities, Warhol turns to a historical figure whose fame predates mass media. Consequently, this portfolio extends his long-running inquiry into how society produces and sustains cultural icons.
Source Image and the Language of Fame
For the Beethoven portfolio, Warhol used Joseph Karl Stieler’s 1820 portrait of the composer as his source image. This likeness remains one of the most recognizable images of Beethoven, and Warhol deliberately draws on that familiarity. By doing so, he suggests that even a classical composer operates within systems of recognition and repetition similar to modern celebrity culture.
Color, Restraint, and Musical Overlay
Unlike Beethoven 390, 392, and 393, which use bold color blocks, Beethoven 391 relies on restraint. The portrait appears almost monochrome, with the face as the only solid block of gray against black clothing and background. Over this subdued image, Warhol layers the handwritten score of Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 14” (the “Moonlight Sonata”) in bright pink that deepens toward red. As a result, the music feels inseparable from the figure, suggesting that Beethoven’s identity dissolves into his compositions.
Beethoven 391 in Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
By minimizing color and emphasizing musical notation, Warhol blurs the boundary between historical genius and modern celebrity. Beethoven 391 positions the composer as a different kind of superstar, one whose legacy circulates through culture much like the icons Warhol depicted throughout his career. In this late work, Warhol reflects on fame not as spectacle, but as endurance.
Photo Credit: Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis, portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, completed in 1820.
