The portrait is in oil on canvas and shows Beethoven in a deep blue frock coat with a large white collar and red scarf.

[4] Schindler also asserted that illness caused a marked change in Beethoven's appearance in this portrait as compared to earlier ones.

[1] Alessandra Comini stated that the portrait included "all the elements dear to future mythmakers", including "genius inspired by inner voices in the presence of nature, with leonine hair writhing wildly in symbolic parallel to the seething turbulence of creativity".

[6] Stieler, who was noted for his portraiture, was in Vienna to paint Emperor Franz at the time he met Beethoven.

[7] From 1909 the painting was owned by Henri Hinrichsen of Leipzig, a music publisher with an extensive art collection.

[1] Comini writes that the "extensive lithographic reproduction" of the work resulted in it having "the greatest influence on Beethoven iconography".