About the Artist

Carl Spitzweg (1808 Munich-1885 Munich) began as a student of pharmacy at the University of Munich. In 1832 he traveled to Italy and, after an illness the following year, decided to become a painter. Spitzweg was first active mainly as a draftsman and illustrator. He lived in Munich all of his life, but he took many trips to the mountains and jaunts to small Bavarian and Frankish cities. In 1849 he traveled to Prague and in 1850 to Italy with Eduard Schleich. In 1851 he visited the World Expo in Paris; 1856 found him in Berlin for a short time. He was awarded honorary membership in the Kunstakademie (Art Academy) of Munich in 1868. Spitzweg painted mainly landscapes and genre paintings in which he depicted anecdotes from the bourgeois world of the Biedermeier era with kindly humor. Works by the artist include The Butterfly Cathcher, c. 1840, Stadtisches Museum, Wiesbaden (on loan from the state collection); Englishment in the Campagna, c. 1845, Natinalgalerie, SMPK, Berlin; and The Painter in the Garden, 1882, Stiftung Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur.