Carl Spitzweg:
Sculpture "The Poor Poet" (1839), cast
Carl Spitzweg:
Sculpture "The Poor Poet" (1839), cast

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ars mundi Exclusive Edition | bonded bronze | patinated | polished | size 23 x 21 x 13 cm (w/h/d) | weight 3 kg

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Product no. IN-697816

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Sculpture "The Poor Poet" (1839), cast
Carl Spitzweg: Sculpture "The Poor Poet" (1839), cast

Detailed description

Sculpture "The Poor Poet" (1839), cast

The symbol of the German poets: "The Poor Poet". It is the best known and most popular painting by German painter Carl Spitzweg. A survey showed that "The Poor Poet" - right after Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" - is one of the most famous pictures among Germans.

Spitzweg has prototypically staged the image of the poet concentrating only on the spiritual here. He is equipped against the cold with a blanket, a scuffed jacket and a sleeping cap, protected with an umbrella against penetrating rainwater and devotes himself unflinchingly to his work. This motif is now exclusively available at ars mundi for the first time in history as a romantic table sculpture. Our sculpture lovingly reproduces Spitzweg's original down to the last detail. An ideal gift for literature lovers, humanities scholars and head acrobats!

Sculptor's model after the 1839 oil painting from the Neue Pinakothek, Munich. Cast by hand. Size 23 x 21 x 13 cm (w/h/d). Edition in polymer cast with bronze-coloured patina. Patinated and polished by hand. Weight 3 kg.

Portrait of the artist Carl Spitzweg

About Carl Spitzweg

1808-1885 - German painter and draughtsman

Carl Spitzweg was one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier period. He created numerous paintings, oil studies, drawings and watercolours whose peculiar, a whimsical charm made him the most popular representative of the bourgeois genre and landscape painting in southern Germany.

Spitzweg came from a wealthy Munich merchant family and initially completed a degree in natural sciences. An illness led him to the decision to become a painter. He continued to train himself and soon found connections with other colleagues of the Munich school of painting, such as Moritz von Schwind.

Spitzweg is one of the great German painters and draughtsmen of the 19th century. His best-known pictures, such as "The Poor Poet", the "Bookworm" or the "Eternal Wedding Man", show eccentrics of bourgeois society indulging in their respective hobbies.

Carl Spitzweg's imagination and outstanding painting technique were combined with perhaps the most important ingredient: his sense of humour. With wit and affectionate exaggeration, the inveterate bachelor created character studies of quirky eccentrics and romantic encounters - always told lovingly and with a twinkle in his eye. This is how he became one of the most popular German artists. He chose very small formats and portrayed the figures precisely and in detail in their respective milieu. In this way, he achieved a satirical overdrawing of the types that reached into the grotesque. In his later works, he placed more emphasis on the spontaneous, sketchy and moving, which is particularly evident in his landscape depictions.

He was not discovered by art history until around 1900, and throughout his life, he was never as famous as other contemporary painters.

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