Carl Spitzweg
5th February 1808 – 23th September 1885
Carl Spitzweg was born on 5th of February in 1808 in Unterpfaffenhofen, Bavaria. Although trained as a chemist, he discovered quite early his talent for drawing and his affinity with art. Spitzweg travelled extensively during his lifetime and the impressions formed by his travels greatly influenced his work. Shortly after completing his studies in pharmaceutics in 1832, he visited Italy. It was particularly in the cities of Florence, Rome, and Naples that he discovered the many significant works of Western culture which were to leave a permanent imprint on him.
A severe case of dysentery in 1833 strengthened his resolve to abandon his career as a chemist and he proceeded to commit himself solely to his painting. In June 1835, he became a member of the Munich Art Association and travelled that same year to southern Tirol with the landscape painter Eduard Schleich, the Elder.
In 1839 he completed his first painting entitled ''The Poor Poet'. Although this recurring motif would later be considered his most well-known body of work, the painting was not accepted at this time by the jury of the Munich Art Association.
As regards his graphic production, the first publication in 1844 of his own illustrations in the Munich weekly paper 'Fliegende Blätter' is considered quite significant. His visits to the Industrial Exposition in Paris and the World's Fair exhibition in London in 1851 were his first contact with the Oriental scenes which would begin to inform his work.
To the deserving painter were bestowed numerous honours during the second half of Spitzweg's lifetime: in 1865 the Bavarian Royal Merit Order of St. Michael was conferred upon him, and in 1875 he was named an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts.
Carl Spitzweg died on 23th of September in 1885 and was entombed in the historic South Cemetery in Munich.
He leaves behind a body of work dedicated to the townspeople who inhibit his genre scenes, and with acute and pointed, but never ill-natured humour he portrays the everday bourgeois life of his time.
Lit: Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg. Verzeichnis der Werke, Gemälde und Aquarelle, Stuttgart: Belser, 2002.
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Frühjahrsauktionen
Mednyánszky, László
1852 Beczkó - 1919 Wien.
Landscape under brewing thunderstorm. Oil on canvas, mounted on panel. Signed lower right. Verso auction notes. Isolated small paint loss. Restored.
Very atmospheric and expressive oil sketch of a landscape under a brewing thunderstorm. The present work joins a series of very similar depictions of comparable and very gestural character paintings with almost surreal and mystic seeming skies above typical Hungarian plain landscapes.
Authentication: We would like to thank Mrs Katarina Benova, expert for László Mednyánszky and curator for
Mrs Katarina Benova dates the work around
We would also like to thank Mr Gábor Einspach, Gallery Kieselbach, Budapest, for the authentication via
Provenance: private collection Baden-Wuerttemberg.
1852 Beczkó - 1919 Wien.
Landschaft bei aufziehendem Gewitter. Öl auf Leinwand, auf Holz kaschiert. U.r. sign. Verso Auktionsvermerke. Vereinzelt kl. Farbabplatzungen. Altrest.
Sehr atmosphärische und ausdrucksstarke Ölskizze einer Landschaft bei aufziehendem Gewittersturm. Die Arbeit reiht sich ein in eine Serie sehr ähnlicher Darstellungen mit vergleichbarem, sehr gestischem Duktus und fast surreal und mystisch anmutendem Himmel über typischen ungarischen Flachlandschaften.
Echtheitsbestätigung: Wir danken Frau Katarina Benova, Expertin für László Mednyánszky und Kuratorin für Malerei des
Frau Katarina Benova datiert das Werk anhand formaler und stilistischer Aspekte in die Schaffensphase um
Wir danken ebenfalls Herrn Gábor Einspach, Galerie Kieselbach, Budapest, für die Bestätigung der Echtheit via
Provenienz: Privatsammlung Baden-Württemberg.