Carl Spitzweg, Rock Study. Mid 19th century. Carl Spitzweg1808 Munich - 1885 ibid. Pencil drawing. Unsigned. With the estate stamp in blue at the lower right. (Lugt 2307). Inscribed by another hand on verso. Mounted in a passepartout at the upper corners. Minimally foxed and corners slightly creased. Margins slightly finger-marked. Dimensions: 23 x 28.8 cm, Psp. 35 x 49 cm. Carl Spitzweg 1808 Munich - 1885 ibid. Second of three sons of the merchant Simon Spitzweg (1776-1828) and Franziska Spitzweg, née Schmutzer (1782-1819). 1825-32 Apprenticeship and studies to become a pharmacist at the Kgl.-Bayr. Hofapotheke and the Munich University. Through his acquaintance with the painter Christian Heinrich Hansonn he decided in 1833 to abandon his training as a pharmacist and to devote himself to painting. From 1835 member of the Munich Kunstverein as an autodidact. Since this time also close friendship with the landscape painter Eduard Schleich the Elder. Both undertook numerous journeys together to the Chiemsee, to Pommersfelden and South Tyrol as well as to Dalmatia, Venice, Paris and London. Other important acquaintances for Spitzweg were Josef Manes, Josef Návratil , August Piepenhangen, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller and the genre painter Eduard Grützner. Spitzweg's oeuvre includes primarily illustrious depictions of Biedermeier bourgeois society as well as idyllic small-town views and satirical drawings, which he produced for the Munich magazine "Fliegende Blätter" between 1844-52, among others, as well as landscape painting.