.
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.
Carl Spitzweg
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Herbstauktionen 06.–08.12.2012
Mucha, Alphons
1860 Eibenschütz/Mähren - 1939 Prag.
«Les arts: poesie, peinture, musique, danse (four arts: poetry, painting, music, dance)». Four lithographs in colours. Each on the stone signed and dated (18)98. Portfolio inscribed «4 estampes décoratives en couleurs. F. Champenois, Imprimeur-Editeur, 66, Bould. St. Michel, Paris». Minor traces of creasing, minor discolouration, minor tears on the margin. 
1860 Eibenschütz/Mähren - 1939 Prag.
«Les arts: poésie, peinture, musique, danse». Vier Farblithographien. Vier Personifikationen der Künste in weiblicher Gestalt, jeweils in einem Kreisornament dargestellt. Die Poesie nachdenklich auf den Abendstern blickend, der Tanz sich auf Zehenspitzen nach hinten beugend und den Betrachter anblickend, die Musik mit entblößtem Oberkörper andächtig dem Gesang von Vögeln lauschend und die Malerei eine rote Blume in ihrer Hand betrachtend. Jeweils im Stein sign. und (18)98 dat. Mappe bez. «4 estampes décoratives en couleurs. F. Champenois, Imprimeur-Editeur, 66, Bould. St. Michel, Paris». Min. Knickspuren, leicht gebräunt, min. Risse im Randbereich. H. 56,7, B. 34,9 cm (Darstellung), H. 60, B. 38,3 cm (Blattgröße).
Mit den allegorischen Darstellungen der Künste begibt sich Mucha in eine Tradition, die bis in die Antike zurückreicht. Wurden damals jedoch die sieben freien Künste dargestellt, fasst Mucha umfassend gedacht die bildenden, darstellenden, schreibenden und musizierenden Künste zusammen. Dies reflektiert das enzyklopädische Denken des 19. Jahrhunderts, das positivistisch zu sammeln sucht und nebeneinander aufreiht. Mucha ergänzt die Bildsprache durch neue Beigaben, beispielsweise die Blume und Farbkreise bei der Malerei. In den Hintergründen deutet er die Tageszeiten an und weist damit jeder Kunst ihre Zeit zu: dem Tanz den Morgen, der Malerei den Tag, der Poesie den Abend und der Musik die Nacht.