Carl Spitzweg

Carl Spitzweg The fishing couple at Hintersee near Berchtesgaden Oil on canvas. 56.2 x 47.7 cm. Signed lower left: C. Spitzweg. Literature S. Wichmann: Spitzweg. The earliest Spitzweg paintings, Starnberg (undated). Special publication of the "Reihe für vergleichende und angewandte Kunstgeschichte", pp. 6-7. This moment will never be forgotten: the young couple rests intimately entwined on the shore, their - first? - kiss seems imminent. In one of his earliest paintings, Carl Spitzweg has chosen a moment that everyone probably associates with a personal memory. Irony is out of place here, even the subtle irony that would later become the painter's trademark. At the beginning of his career, however, Spitzweg was a follower of the expressly serious Nazarenes. For some time now, art history has recognized the value of these early Spitzweg works. One of his earliest works is "The Fisherman and Fisherwoman at Hintersee near Berchtesgaden" from 1834. The painting not only contains the magic of a new love, but also of a new vocation as an artist. "Since I became a painter - I am a completely different person," he wrote to his brother in the same year, after he had turned away from studying pharmacy and towards painting.