32
32

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Carl Spitzweg
GERMAN
DER HISTORIENMALER (THE HISTORY PAINTER)
Estimate
Double Dagger
Indicates that the lot is being sold whilst subject to Temporary Importation, and that VAT is due at the reduced rate
20,000 — 30,000
GBP
LOT SOLD. 36,500 GBP
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32

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Carl Spitzweg
GERMAN
DER HISTORIENMALER (THE HISTORY PAINTER)
Estimate
Double Dagger
Indicates that the lot is being sold whilst subject to Temporary Importation, and that VAT is due at the reduced rate
20,000 — 30,000
GBP
LOT SOLD. 36,500 GBP
JUMP TO LOT

Details & Cataloguing

European Paintings including German, Austrian & Central European Paintings and The Orientalist Sale

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London

Carl Spitzweg
1808 - 1885
GERMAN
DER HISTORIENMALER (THE HISTORY PAINTER)
signed with the Rhombus monogram lower right
oil on panel
33 by 27cm., 13 by 10½in.
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Provenance

Acquired by the present owner circa 1995

Literature

Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg, 'Carl Spitzweg, Der Historienmaler, Dokumentation', Reihe für vergleichende und angewandte Kunstgeschichte, Starnberg-Munich, 1988, p. 5ff. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Inv.-Nr. Ana 656 SW 102)
Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg. Kunst, Kosten und Konflikte, Frankfurt/ Berlin, 1991, pp. 36-61
Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg. Verzeichnis der Werke, Stuttgart, 2002, p. 268, no. 511, illustrated in colour and catalogued

Catalogue Note

Painted circa 1843, this fascinating painting is thought to be a stylised depiction of the interior of Spitzweg's studio. Its occupant, wearing a long house coat and berret, stands admiring a group of paintings. Certainly, the painting abounds in tantalising self-referential clues. On the picture crate can be read 'Hanno', presumably the first letters of 'Hannover', a name he associated with bad luck throughout his career; while the plaster goddess of luck, wearing a fool's cap, is a symbol of his lack of success at Hanover's Kunstverein (artists' assocation). Thus, Spitzweg becomes the subject of the very mockery usually reserved for the Sonderlinge (odd men out) that people his pictorial world (see lot 28). 

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European Paintings including German, Austrian & Central European Paintings and The Orientalist Sale

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London