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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.
Werke von Carl Spitzweg bei Auktionen von KAUPP
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2081
Frühjahrsauktion
Spitzweg, Carl
1808 München - 1885 ebd.
Öl/Lw. «Der Kraxenträger in der Schlucht». In halb lichtbeschienener und halb verschatteter Klamm ein Kraxenträger mit Stock, über einem schlanken Baumstamm eine Schlucht passierend. Ein kleines Tier auf der Kraxe sitzend. U.l. sign. mit S im Rhombus. Rest.
Zu diesem Werk liegt eine Dokumentation des Spitzweg-Experten Prof. Dr. Siegfried Wichmann vor.
Prof. Dr. Siegfried Wichmann äußert sich zu dem vorliegenden Gemälde wie folgt:
«Das Bild ‹Der Kraxenträger› ist ein bedeutendes Bild, sowohl vom Thema her gesehen, wie von der Maltechnik. Spitzweg hat das Gemälde von der Frühzeit bis in die Spätzeit immer wieder gemalt, skizziert und gezeichnet. Als Bub lernte er den berühmten Kraxenträger Anton Adner kennen.
Der hier in der Dokumentation geschilderte Bergsteiger Adner war mit dem Vater Spitzwegs, Simon (1776 - 1828), sehr gut bekannt. Er kaufte oft im Geschäft Simons ‹Spezereien› ein, die er dann in den Alpentälern den Großbauern anbot.
Das hier in der Dokumentation wissenschaftlich hervorgehobene Bild gehört in die Reihe der besten Spätwerke des Malers um 1875. Der Erhaltungszustand ist hervorragend, die Qualität bestens, versehen mit einer sehr guten Rhombussignatur auf gut erhaltener Leinwand und Keilrahmen - eine sichere Anlage. Die Vorzeichnung zu diesem Gemälde ist einmalig, aber ebenso die Maltechnik der Spätzeit um 1875. Betrachten wir die geniale Maltechnik im Detail, so ist die Bedeutung Spitzwegs für die gesamte Münchner Malschule immer von hohem Einfluss gewesen.»
Lit.: AKL, Thieme-Becker.