Carl Spitzweg

(1808-1885) was a German Romantic painter. He is considered one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier period. His style of painting belongs to the late Romantic period. Spitzweg was born in Unterpfaffenhofen near Munich, Bavaria. His father, a wealthy businessman, had Carl train as a pharmacist. He graduated from the University of Munich but took up painting while recovering from an illness. As an artist, Spitzweg was self-taught and initially copied the works of Flemish masters. He wrote his first works for satirical magazines. When he received an inheritance in 1833, he was able to devote himself to painting. Spitzweg later visited European art centers in Prague, Venice, Paris, London and Belgium, studying the works of various artists and honing his technique and style. Spitzweg portrayed people in their contemporary bourgeois milieu. In small-format pictures, he portrayed the Biedermeier petty bourgeoisie, oddballs and romantic events. His later paintings and drawings are often humorous genre works. Many of his paintings show sharply characterized eccentrics, for example "The Bookworm" (1850) and "The Hypochondriac" (around 1865, in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich). From 1824 he began to paint with oil paints. During his lifetime, Spitzweg was able to sell around four hundred paintings. Carl Spitzweg created over 1500 pictures and drawings.