250th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTHE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN  

Born in Bonn in 1770 into a musical family, Ludwig van Beethoven became a pupil of the great composer of the time, Haydn. His destiny places him at the junction between classicism, of which he represented the culmination, and romanticism, of which he favored the awakening. Although his symphonic music was the main source of his popularity, he also had a considerable impact in piano writing and chamber music. Overcoming the hardships of a life marked by deafness, his art is the expression of an unalterable faith in man and a voluntary optimism, making him one of the most significant figures of the history of music.

• Design: Gueorgui CHICHKINE
• Line-engraving: Pierre ALBUISSON
• Printing process: 3 colours steel-engraving
• Size of the stamp: 40 x 31,77 mm horizontal
• Quantity of issue: 40 000 stamps
• Sheet of 10 stamps with illuminations