Carl Spitzweg

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Carl Spitzweg

Born	February 5, 1808 Unterpfaffenhofen
Died	September 23, 1885 Munich
Nationality	German
Field	painter, poet
Movement	German Romanticism, Biedermeier

Carl Spitzweg (February 5, 1808 – September 23, 1885) was a German romanticist painter and poet. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era.
He was born in Unterpfaffenhofen as the second of three sons of Franziska and Simon Spitzweg. 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 also took up painting. Spitzweg was self-taught as an artist, and began 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.
Later, Spitzweg visited European art centers, studying the works of various artists and refining his technique and style; he visited Prague, Venice, Paris, London, and Belgium. His later paintings and drawings are often humorous genre works. Many of his paintings depict sharply characterized eccentrics, for example The Bookworm (1850) and The Hypochondriac (c. 1865, in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich).
His paintings inspired the musical comedy Das kleine Hofkonzert by Edmund Nick. He is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich.

Paintings

The cactus friend
The Poor Poet
Ash Wednesday
The Bookworm
The intercepted love letter
Disputing monks
Serenade
A Woodland Meeting
Music-making Hermit before his Rocky Abode
The Mineral-collector in the Grotto
Schoolchildren in the Woodland

Grave of Spitzweg in Munich

The Bookworm, 1850. Museum Georg Schäfer
In the Harem, after 1855 Museum Georg Schäfter
The Poor Poet, 1839. Neue Pinakothek
Zeitungsleser im Hausgärtchen, between 1845-1858
Der Schmetterlingsjäger (The butterfly hunter), a depiction from the era of butterfly collection (1840)