1166 - SPITZWEG, CARL

SPITZWEG, CARL 1808 Munich–1885 Munich Title: In the Forest. Subtitle: The Hunter and his Dog. Date: Around 1865-1870. Technique: Oil on panel. Mounting: Parquetted. Measurement: 24.5 x 45cm. Notation: Signed lower left: S in the rhombus. Reverse: On the panel is a handwritten label from Galerie Heinemann, Munich as well as two numbered labels, another on the frame. Frame: Framed. Carl Spitzweg was born into a merchant family from Munich and enjoyed a sheltered childhood. All life long, he stayed true to his home town; here he learnt to be an apothecary and studied pharmacy, chemistry and botany. Having gained his financial independence through inheritance, the 25-year-old Spitzweg decided to follow his passion and deidctaed his life to painting from then on. He set himself a deadline of 15 years to experience artisthood and assert himself. Should he remain without success, he planned to return to his being as an apothecary. A firend circle of different painters, especially Eduard Schleich the Elder, gave valuable pieces of advice to the self-taught artist and encouraged his decision. And quickly his success arrived: Spitzweg's smalll-scale works whose audience was the new bourgeois class of buyers were soon well-sold. The extremely diligent painter, however, also was a mind who travelled frequently and was open to the innovations of the (artistic) world. During his innumerable travels and hikes with his artist friends he collected his impressions of Bavaria, the alpine region, Northern Italy or even Dalmatia. One journey that had a long-lasting influence on his artistic work led Carl Spitzweg with his brother and Eduard Schleich the Elder first to Paris in 1851 and from there to the first world exhibition in London. In Paris Spitzweg contacted the artists of the Barbizon School who he visited at the Fontainebleau forest. The unmediated painting in the landscape, the consequent new handling of light and shadows, the non-linear artistic handling of paint and the stage-like construction of landscapes, too, as the group around Théodore Rousseau, Camille Corot and Charles Francois Daubigny practiced it - all of this impressed and fascinated Spitzweg. The subsequent confrontation with William Turner's works in London led his painting even further into the same direction. In Carl Spitzweg's oeuvre there are many paintings that directly reflect the influenceof this 1851 journey. The atmospheric painting 'In the Forest', lot no. 1166, belongs to these. Siegfried Wiechmann provides evidence for three versions of this motif on different painting grounds each. The theme of the lonely hunter with a dog was repeated with pleasure in different shapes by Carl Spitzweg. In the present painting, the dark of the woods that seems to be growing more intense towards the image margins is illuminated by a bright light in the middle ground so that ist becomes a stage space. Here, the white dog is hit by the light. It is trudging after his owner who can only be recognises as his - very characteristic - sillhouette. The path on which both are walking as well as the ruts runnning alongside the path lead to the forest's edge in the distance. There the light blue cheerfulsky reveals itself. Asit is a radiating day non matter how dense and dark the woods lies, which is made clear by the bright light creeping to the forest soil. With inumerous meticulous details Carl Spitzweg has made the forest's atmosphere perceptible in his impasto painting. This painting makes it especially possible to experience Carl Spitzweg as the narrator of small things and situation. Provenance: - Private ownership, Germany; Lempertz auction, Cologne, 22nd to 25th May 1951, lot 751; Lempertz auction, Cologne, 3rd November 1950, lot 149, fig. plate 30; Dr Ing. P. Schmitz, Düsseldorf, 30th August 1935; Heinemann Gallery, Munich, 24th July 1935; Art dealer Norbert Nusser, Biberach; JP Schneider Art Dealers, Frankfurt, 1918; Karl Haberstock Art Dealers, Augsburg, 12th April 1918; Max Braunthal Collection, Frankfurt. According to the current state of research, the provenance of this artwork is uncontroversial. Literature: S. Wichmann: Carl Spitzweg. Catalogue raisonné. Stuttgart 2002, p. 541, no. 1498, with ill. Estimated shipping costs for this lot: The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction. additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo USA by individual arrangement after the auction. #Carl Spitzweg #Munich School #Biedermeier #Germany #19th C. #Hunting #Forest Scenes #Paintings.