If there was one painter who captured the agonies of love letters well, it was surely Johannes Vermeer of Delft, in the Netherlands. These 6 paintings are listed in my order of preference and while I admire the use of light from the window and the colors (lapis lazuli blues

The images above and below of Beethoven are from 1818 through 1820 when he was around 50. They pretty much established the popular view we have today of the genius composer with wavy, flowing hair, an image he no doubt cultivated. However, there is reason to believe he did not

In her diary, a young Fanny del Rio records the visit Beethoven made to her father in 1816. She writes that Beethoven said that five years earlier he had found the perfect love: “Five years ago he had become acquainted with a person, a more intimate union with whom he

Beethoven was buried initially at Währing in northern Vienna, but after the opening of Vienna's massive cemetery, Wiener Zentralfriedhof in 1874 (it is actually south of Vienna, not "Zentral" at all), his remains were relocated there. Schubert, Brahms, Salieri, the Strauss family, Schoenberg and many others

Beethoven lived and worked in Vienna for 35 years and he moved constantly - he may have lived in at least 60 places during those years. In 1802, he was living in Heiligenstadt, then a rural village in one of the wine-growing areas (heurigen) and now in the northern suburbs

Beethoven knew it as Teplitz, at a time when the majority population spoke German - above. It was a popular spa town for artists, writers and the aristocracy and Beethoven met Goethe here in 1812 and began writing Symphony No. 7. Above is the Castle Square today, Zámecké námestí in

Beethoven was invited by Countess Marie Erdödy to join her at her country home in Jedlesee, northeast across the Danube, during the summers of 1801-1803. This location today is Jeneweingasse 17 and it's a museum and very much part of Vienna. The house is shown above, but it&

Some of us grew up with a vague knowledge of who The Sandman was. He sprinkled sand in our eyes until we fell asleep. But in E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story, The Sandman (Der Sandmann) (1816), he steals the eyes of children who won't go

"Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life" (Musik ist der Mondschein in der düsteren Nacht des Lebens) - the writer Jean Paul The German Romantics - writers, painters, musicians - celebrated the moon and moonlight, sunset and sunrise, rocky outcrops in the mountains, church ruins

Gustav Klimt's amazing Beethoven frieze of 1901-1902 is inspired by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Below is the striking part: the left half of the middle wall. That's not Beethoven in the middle; it's Typhon the giant. He is said to be buried underneath

The Helenental is a forested area in the Vienna Woods west of the spa town of Baden bei Wien, along the River Schwechat. Beethoven often walked there and it is said to be the inspiration for the Pastoral Symphony, which he composed between 1802 and 1808. Leaving Baden bei Wien,

Beethoven died in 1827 at the age of 56. The autopsy revealed significant liver damage and since then multiple explanations have been given for his death. The most recent research indicates a genetic predisposition for liver disease (and he was known for heavy drinking), and a hepatitis B infection during

* 1770 Beethoven born in Bonn * 1774 First version of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther published; final version in 1787 * 1789 French Revolution * 1792 Beethoven moves to Vienna at the age of 22 * 1800 Relationship with Countess Giulietta Guicciardi begins; Beethoven by now famous throughout Europe * 1801 This year

Karlovy Vary was known as Karlsbad to Beethoven when he went for walks there with Goethe and when it was one of the leading spa towns of Europe. The names literally mean "Charles Bath" after Charles IV, the founder of the town in the 14th century. The town

The Brunsvik family had two mansions that Beethoven visited frequently and they are tourist attractions these days. Above and below are photos of the Martonvásár mansion in Hungary. It is where he composed Für Elise, which was not published during his lifetime. The Martonvásár mansion (or Brunsvik Castle) is a

Beethoven was influenced by - and played a major role in - German Romanticism, which is generally placed between 1770 and 1830. Its most representative literary symbol was Novalis' mysterious Blue Flower (Blaue Blume) that symbolized striving for the infinite and the unreachable, for ecstasy, for freedom. Your guess

6 July, in the morning My angel, my all, my very self: Only a few words today, and these in pencil (in your pencil). Not until tomorrow will my lodgings be definitely engaged. What a useless waste of time such matters are! Why this profound sorrow when necessity speaks? Can

Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns is a 1939-40 novel by Thomas Mann. In the novel, Mann imagines what it might have been like if Lotte (Charlotte Kestner), the childhood sweetheart of Goethe’s who inspired The Sorrows of Young Werther, comes to Weimar many decades later to see him.