10 Works, Today, February 5th. is artist Carl Spitzweg's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #036

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

Detail; The knitting guard, c. 1855

Oil on canvas

21.6 x 39.2 cm

Museum Georg Schäfer, Bavaria, Germany

Carl Spitzweg (February 5, 1808 – September 23, 1885) was a German romanticist painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era.

Spitzweg was born in Unterpfaffenhofen, near Munich, Bavaria. His father, a wealthy merchant, had Carl trained as a pharmacist. He attained his qualification from the University of Munich but, while recovering from an illness, he took up painting.

Spitzweg was self-taught as an artist, starting out by copying the works of Flemish masters. He contributed his first work to satiric magazines. Upon receiving an inheritance in 1833, he was able to dedicate himself to painting.

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

The Butterfly Hunter, c. 1840

Oil on panel

Height: 31 cm (12.2 in); Width: 25 cm (9.8 in)

Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany

This painting pokes fun of the curious practice of the 19th Century when many Europeans of means fancied themselves adventurers and scientists simply because they had the wherewithal and inclination to travel to exotic places. In The Butterfly Hunter, we have an intrepid naturalist encountering a pair of giant butterflies. The naturalist carries a bright red umbrella, a canteen and a variety of other supplies along with a dainty looking butterfly net. The sun reflects off of his spectacles, giving him an almost bug-eyed look at he gazes in astonishment at the huge blue butterflies which could never possibly fit into his little net. More on this painting

Unmarried throughout his life, he traveled constantly and found motifs and inspiration in Bavaria, the foothills of the Alps and in works by the old masters. His small-format paintings, which he often painted on the lids of cigar boxes, sold well. Critical successes at the Paris World Exhibition of 1867 and the I International Art Exhibition in the Munich Glass Palace in 1869 consolidated the Munich painter's reputation as a leading chronicler and social analyst of his time.

Carl Spitzweg

Arrival of the Stagecoach, around 1859

Oil on canvas, 55.6 x 41.2 cm

Eckhart G. Grohmann Collection, Milwaukee, WI (USA))

He lived in a small garret room perched above the Bavarian town of Rothenburg, Germany. At that time Rothenburg was a city on the decline full of medieval architecture, stone decorations and historical relics;  “a little walled gothic-schwabian nest (Nestlein), full of architectural jewels, that one would pay millions for, if they could be moved.” 

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

The natural scientist, between 1875 and 1880

Oil on canvas

Height: 57.2 cm (22.5 in); Width: 34.9 cm (13.7 in)

Milwaukee Art Museum

This painting shows a room cluttered with what appear to be archeological finds from around the world surrounding a scholar examining yet another artifact.

There are a pair of skeletons and what appears to be a small primate in the background of the piece. The trio look as if they are quietly slipping out of a rain-forest and perhaps escaping the naturalist’s lair. An Egyptian sarcophagus is pushed in a corner, yet somehow appears to be standing guard over the scholar, perhaps ready to protect him from the skeletal remains of what might be that of a small dinosaur. More on this painting

Later, Spitzweg visited European art centers in Prague, Venice, Paris, London, and Belgium studying the works of various artists and refining his technique and style. His later paintings and drawings are often humorous genre works. Many of his paintings depict sharply characterized eccentrics, for example The Bookworm (1850) (See below) and The Hypochondriac (c. 1865, in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich) (See below).

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

The Bookworm, circa 1850

Oil on canvas

Height: 49.5 cm (19.4 in); Width: 26.8 cm (10.5 in)

Museum Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt, Bavaria, Germany

The picture was made circa 1850 and is typical of Spitzweg's humorous, anecdotal style and it is characteristic of Biedermeier art in general. The painting is representative of the introspective and conservative mood in Europe during the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the revolutions of 1848, but at the same time pokes fun at those attitudes by embodying them in the fusty old scholar unconcerned with the affairs of the mundane world. More on this painting

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

Ein Hypochonder/ The Hypochondriac, circa 1865

Oil on canvas

Height: 54 cm (21.2 in); Width: 31 cm (12.2 in)

Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Germans rank Spitzweg's The Poor Poet (See below) second only to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa among their all-time favorite paintings. It is small compared to most paintings and at only 36 X 45 cm has proven a fairly desirable target for thieves. The Poor Poet has been stolen twice. A daring day-time robbery in 1989 that involved speed and the ruse of a wheelchair-bound art patron left the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin without this famous painting and The Love Letter, another much loved work by Spitzweg. Both paintings remain unaccounted for.

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

Der arme Poet/ The Poor Poet, c. 1839

Oil on canvas

Height: 36.2 cm (14.2 in); Width: 44.6 cm (17.5 in)

Neue Pinakothek,  Munich, Germany

“The Poor Poet” by Carl Spitzweg depicts the popular cliché of the poet concentrating only on his art; his material wealth and appearances are not a priority.

The poet is shown in his shabby attic room on a simple mattress lying on the bare floor, wearing a worn-out and patched jacket and a sleeping cap. An umbrella has been positioned to protect him from the leaky roof, and his books surround him. The poet is unperturbed by the impoverished room he is devoted to writing his poem.

He holds his writing quill in his mouth while he uses his fingers to count the meter of his poem. Like so many of Carl Spitzweg’s paintings, “The Poor Poet” combines a look into a real-life situation with a sense of humor. When the picture was first exhibited in the Munich in 1839, it met with criticism because of its satirical depiction of the impoverished poet. More on this painting

Spitzweg's work was highly sought after by Adolph Hitler. Some believe that Hitler's first serious purchase around 1929 was the Spitzweg seen around that time in Hitler's apartment. The Fuhrer's interest in Spitzweg and other German artists created a huge increase in demand for the German paintings. That demand caused favored artists' works to escalate in price by as much as 500 percent in the years leading up to World War II.

Carl Spitzweg, 1808 - 1885

AUS DEM ORIENT/ OUT OF THE ORIENT, c. 1868

Oil on canvas

63 by 35.5cm., 24¾ by 14in.

Private collection

Painted circa 1868, this painting belongs to Spitzweg's rare Orientalist works, inspired by the model souks and bazaars he saw at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. He never actually travelled to the Middle East himself.

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

Im Harem/ In the Harem, after 1855

Oil on canvas

Height: 38 cm (14.9 in); Width: 30.7 cm (12 in)

Museum Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt, Bavaria, Germany

Spitzweg's works are admired for their subject matter. Spitzweg often included satire within each work and instead of creating just a portrait or a landscape, he created a humorous look into life in the middle class. Many in the art world liken viewing his paintings to wandering through an old German town of the 1840s. His paintings inspired the musical comedy Das kleine Hofkonzert by Edmund Nick.

Carl Spitzweg  (1808–1885)

Hunting Disaster, c. 1839

Oil on canvas

24.4 x 21.9 cm

Museum Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt, Bavaria, Germany

Playing Piano, an etching by Spitzweg, was found as part of the Munich Art Hoard.

Spitzweg is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich. More on Carl Spitzweg

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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