Career
He first served an apprenticeship in Dresden with Anton Graff to become a painter and later on, he continued with his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Mähler then decided to start a civil career and he became an officer of the secret service Geheime Kabinettskanzlei (secret chancellery) in Vienna. Now, painting was just a hobby to him.
One year later already, he painted his first portrait of Beethoven, which shows three quarters of the composer"s body in an Arcadian landscape, holding a lyre-guitar in his hand.
Around 1815, Mähler produced a series of portraits showing contemporary Viennese composers. As written in the Allgemeine Musikzeitung (General music journal) in August 1815, "all of them distinguish themselves in a most creditable way through the effectual brush stroke, the descriptive resemblance and the distinctive expression of their soul".
A half length portrait of Beethoven was part of the series. The painter created several versions of this portrait.
