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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2215
Herbstauktionen 25.–26.09.2015
Michaux, Henri
1899 Namur - 1980 Paris.
«Dessin mescalinien». India ink with red and brown ink on strong wove paper, with tear-off edge at the upper margin. Monogrammed lower right.
Henri Michaux is considered as one of the great lonesome figures within the art of the
Provenance: purchased at Gallery Lelong, Paris; since then private collection.
1899 Namur - 1980 Paris.
«Dessin mescalinien». Tusche und rote sowie braune Tinte auf festem Velin, am oberen Rand mit Abreißkante. U.r. monogr.
H. 26,5,
Henri Michaux gilt als einer der großen Einzelgänger in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Als Persönlichkeit von tiefer, fast mönchischer Spiritualität ist er zuerst mehr der Literatur zugewandt, als er 1925 der Malerei von Paul Klee, Max Ernst und Giorgio de Chirico begegnet und begeistert ist. Vor allem während seines Frühwerks steht er den Surrealisten nahe und nutzt viele ihrer methodischen Arbeitstechniken, wie beispielsweise den Automatismus, um Zugang zu seinem Unterbewusstsein zu erlangen. Um 1956 beginnt er seine ersten kontrollierten Experimente mit Halluzinogenen und anderen bewusstseinserweiternden Drogen, darunter auch Meskalin. Seine dabei gesammelten Eindrücke und Erfahrungen verarbeitet er in literarischen Werken sowie zahlreichen Gemälden und Zeichnungen, zu denen auch das hier gezeigte Blatt zählt. Charakteristisch für jene Arbeiten ist, dass sie Schrift und Bild in sich zu vereinen scheinen, indem sie Poesie und Zeichnung durch hieroglyphische und teilweise kryptisch-kalligraphische Zeichen miteinander verbinden.
Provenienz: erworben in der Galerie Lelong, Paris; seitdem Privatsammlung.