Thayer's copy

Thayer's copy of Joseph Willibrord Mähler's 1804—05 portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist	Unknown
Year	1808 (1808)
Medium	Oil on canvas
Subject	Ludwig van Beethoven
Dimensions	145 cm × 12 cm × 117 cm (57 in × 4.75 in × 46 in)
Location	New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City
Owner	New York Public Library
Accession	November 26, 1940
Website	Catalog record

Thayer's copy of Beethoven (Mähler, 1804–05) is an oil painting portrait of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Estimated to have been painted around 1808, it is a copy by an unidentified painter of the untitled portrait of Beethoven from 1804-05 by Joseph Willibrord Mähler. This copy was owned for many years by Alexander Wheelock Thayer, author of the first scholarly biography of the composer, who considered it one of his most prized possessions. Today the painting belongs to the New York Public Library.

Thayer estimated the copy of Mähler's portrait to have been painted approximately in 1808 by an unidentified artist (it is known that Mähler did not paint the copy himself). The date derives from a listing in an 1890 exhibition catalog for a Beethoven festival held in Bonn. Since Thayer was still living in 1890, musicologists Luigi Bellofatto and Owen Jander surmise that he must have personally lent the portrait for exhibition and most likely provided the date.

The earliest known owner of the portrait was Ferdinand Luib, editor of the noted musical journal, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. Bellofatto and Jander hypothesize that Luib, having unsuccessfully compiled materials for a biography of Franz Schubert, recognized the same research drive in Thayer and presented him with the portrait as a gift. When Thayer was appointed US Consul to Italy, the portrait hung the American Consulate in Trieste. (Thayer held the position from 1865—1882.) Upon Thayer's death in 1897, it was inherited by his niece Susan Elizabeth Fox. She donated it to the Beethoven Association, a New York-based group that came into existence for the purpose of translating Thayer's biography into English by producing chamber music concerts. (The translation by Henry Edward Krehbiel was first published by the Beethoven Association for its members in 1921.)