Carl Spitzweg

Happy Birthday Carl Spitzweg!! Born in 1808 in Bavaria, Spitzweg studied pharmacy in Munich, but after suffering a long illness, turned to drawing and painting instead. He copied masters’ works, basically training himself. He was inducted as an honorary member of the Academy of Visual Arts even though he never attended formal art training. His paintings are of German middle class genre. He made many contributions to Fliegende Blatter, a weekly German publication of comics, poems and stories. The satirical painting below is one of Spitzweg’s more famous genre scenes. Entitled the Poor Poet, this painting is filled with symbolism, the starving artist foremost. The wretched soul shivering on a thin mattress, the cold (evidenced by the top hat resting there) stove holds some of his writing, the umbrella has been regarded a symbol of the common man. The window provides the only bright spot in the painting, perhaps beckoning the starving poet to greener pastures beyond…