Arnold Foerster sculpted this Beethoven,
unveiled on October 14th 1932 at the Public
Art Division of the Cultural Affairs Department.
The statue can be found on the edge of
Pershing Square, which is the town's oldest
park. Today the statue is... on the roof
of a carpark!
Foerster's Beethoven is similar to the
model by Robert Weigl, which had already
been used by Fritz Hänlein, in 1910,
to make a statue at Heiligenstadt. But the
story of it's conception tells that it was
inspired by a photo of Beethoven walking
through the woods.
As the plaque indicates, this statue is
dedicated to William Andrews Clark Jr.,
founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Orchestra. The initial project was to erect
a statue of Clark to thank him for his generosity.
But he prefered a statue of his favourite
composer: Beethoven.
Beethoven
at Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
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