65 - Carl Spitzweg (1808 – Munich – 1885), Hunter with a Dirndl.

Carl Spitzweg (1808 – Munich – 1885), Hunter with a Dirndl. Oil on canvas. Approx. 30.5 x 23 cm. Monogrammed with an “S” in a rhombus in the lower left corner. Detlef Rosenberger of Oberostendorf has confirmed the authenticity of the painting after viewing the original and will include it in the digital catalog raisonné of Spitzweg’s paintings, which is currently in preparation. Love and its complexities play a prominent role in Spitzweg’s work, partly because the experience of love was a defining factor in his life: His great love, the married Clara Lechner, died of bronchitis before their planned wedding, and after this painful loss, Spitzweg never entered into another serious relationship. Throughout his life, he remained the “proud bachelor” he depicted countless times in his paintings. Perhaps this is why Spitzweg often depicts encounters between the sexes as images of resignation, as missed opportunities for something more—painting titles such as “Nix is” or “Vorüber,” in which a hunter encounters a dairymaid, describe the hopelessness and futility of love: The hunter turns around and casts a longing, resigned glance back at her—the days of youth are over; this young woman is no longer within his reach. But then, in our painting, Spitzweg shifts the perspective: A young man in hunting gear walks with a farm girl along a narrow path into the heart of the forest. He holds her close; they are devoted to one another and gaze into each other’s eyes—a moment of love fulfilled, reserved for youth. The deep, dark forest wraps protectively around them, concealing their secret and preserving their intimacy, shielding them from prying eyes—only the viewer bears witness to their tête-à-tête. The couple is about to venture deeper into the dark forest, which appears majestic yet not threatening—rather, the thicket gently envelops them, and within it, humanity and nature merge in color and atmosphere. For Spitzweg, the forest is a vehicle of emotional meaning, and the couple becomes part of the forest’s organic fabric. The path, in turn, which leads into the darkness, symbolizes the lovers’ journey from the darkness of the forest toward the light—above them, the treetops part, revealing a glimpse of the sunny, blue sky. This distinctive play of light—the contrast between the darkness of the forest and the view of the bright sky—is characteristic of nearly all of Spitzweg’s forest paintings. Spitzweg repeated and varied this motif in numerous versions—most closely in a painting in Kassel (Hessen Kassel Heritage, Neue Galerie, Inv. No. AZ 134, Wichmann 1480)—in which the subject matter is identical but the lighting is altered, featuring the same couple, for whom a preparatory drawing is held in Hamburg (Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. No. 1916-458). The repetitions and variations suggest that the subject was highly popular among his middle-class collectors, who not only found in such paintings their longing for unspoiled nature but were also confronted with their own world through the figure of the hunter: The Revolution of 1848 had abolished the nobility’s exclusive right to hunt and, as a result, introduced a hunting district system in 1850 that required the employment of professional hunters and foresters responsible for protecting the forests. The local foresters and hunters, who often came from the middle class, were frequently isolated within the social fabric of Bavarian villages as state officials representing authority and were shunned by the rural population, which made contact between them difficult. Marriages with locals, for example, were difficult, yet the dark forest offered opportunities to meet in secret and forge connections—Spitzweg, a keen observer, thus uses the motif of nature to depict and portray a slice of social reality in his paintings. Dr. Peter Prange Provenance: Karoline Friederike Oetker (1867–1945), Bielefeld/Hornoldendorf Manor; Private collection, Southern Germany (inherited from the aforementioned). Taxation: subject to differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme).