"The Poor Poet”
This painting by Carl Spitzweg is filled with symbols – from the familiar scene of the starving artist living in a remote loft to the top hat, walking stick and cravat that epitomizes a typical 19th-century German – and is itself a symbol of the Biedermeier era.
![Carl Spitzweg's The Poor Poet, Wikipedia [public domain]](http://images.suite101.com/133025_carl_spitzweg_poorpoet_small_wikipedia.jpg "Carl Spitzweg's The Poor Poet, Wikipedia [public domain]")
Carl Spitzweg's painting is a premier example of genre painting from the Biedermeier.
Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885) was a German draftsman and genre painter. Genre painting is concerned with the realistic depiction of ordinary scenes from everyday life like family events, interiors, domestic scenes, parties, sporting activities, street scenes, markets, picnics, festivals, and tavern scenes. These paintings were popular with the middle class because of the subject matter and because the generally small scale of these paintings was appropriate for display in middle-class homes.
Spitzweg taught himself painting within a circle of artist friends, beginning by copying the works of Flemish masters. Later, Spitzweg visited European art centers like Prague, Venice, Paris, London, Zurich, and Belgium, studying the works of other artists and refining his style, his drawing skills, and his painting techniques. Though he traveled widely, he was provincial in his choice of subjects, depicting the daily life of his native Munich in small, charming pictures in which he combines realism, fancy, and humor. His paintings reflect aspects of middle-class German life in the 19th century: people enjoying lively outdoor picnics, preparing meals, meeting family members at train stations, playing musical instruments, singing in courtyards, passing forbidden love letters, painting, and tending gardens.
In “The Poor Poet” (1839), Spitzweg depicts a writer living out the familiar image of the starving artist in wretched conditions in a small room in an attic. The painting contains many significant images. The poet writes while huddling under his bedcovers and wearing a tattered coat and nightcap. The writer has been burning some of his own work – most likely volumes I and II since volumes III and IV remain in bundles on the floor. The fire in the room has obviously gone out since the poet rests his hat on the cold stovepipe and no live coals are visible in the stove. Indeed this cold stove is the darkest part of the picture and symbolizes the writer’s sorry state of affairs.
Spitzweg himself liked living up high. In 1833 he moved into an apartment on the top floor of a house in Munich and wrote, “The view is magnificent… all around a vast mountain chain of roofs studded with chimneys and attic windows like castles and ruins… and the sky so close – it is unrivalled.” Through the window–the only bright spot in the painting–such a view can be seen.
In the painting, the poet wears a cravat around his neck as if he is ready to go out. Cravats were an important piece of a man’s wardrobe. Walking sticks were important, too, like the cravat, as a way to dress up and lend a man a sense of individuality. The poor poet’s stick can be seen leaning against the wall on the left. The umbrella had been around for a while but this open umbrella may be Spitzweg’s artistic novelty since no one had painted the motif before. After the Paris revolution of 1830 the citizen king used an umbrella to show his closeness to the average citizen and it had become a symbol of populism. The top hat as well had become part of the standard dress for ordinary law-abiding citizens.
Indeed Spitzweg’s “Poor Poet” with his rimmed glasses, top hat, walking stick, umbrella, and cravat has become a symbol for an era – the Biedermeier period (1815-1848) which centered on the family and private life. The Biedermeier is marked by two trends in the early nineteenth century. First is the growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a rising middle class. This new audience wanted to experience a more simple and realistic art than that of the then-popular but rather fussy Romantic style. For example, Franz Schubert is immensely popular during this time for his Lieder music that can be performed by the average person at the piano without substantial musical training.
The second trend is the growing political oppression occurring as an effort to avoid a repeat of the French revolution. The newly re-established monarchies of Europe are determined to suppress any form of uprising and to keep order restored. Spitzweg’s window looks out over 19th-century Munich where the reigning monarch, King Ludwig, builds improvements in the city without asking the citizens. He suppresses all democratic tendencies, going so far as to officially instate the term “subjects” instead of “citizens.” As with all royalty at this time, the king determines what can be publicly said and written, so people outwardly focus on family rather than politics.
Spitzweg’s genre paintings are the epitome of Biedermeier art that is true to reality, showing people going about their daily domestic activities with grace and elegance. This trend paved the way for the Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Bauhaus movements.
Source:
Hagen, Rose-Marie & Rainer. What Great Paintings Say: Old Masters in Detail. Cologne: Benedikt Tasche, 2000.
