Lot 2539 Dα

With a cutting from the Neumeister auction catalogue affixed to the back of the stretcher. The catalogues of the Graupe and Lempertz auctions mention an expertise by Uhde-Bernays that no longer exists today.

In his late period, Carl Spitzweg increasingly dedicated his time to landscape painting. He was influenced in this decision by his friend and fellow artist Eduard Schleich, who was one of the leading pioneers of plein air painting in Germany. Spitzweg and Schleich undertook many journeys together, including one to Paris in 1851, where the two artists were especially impressed by the works of the Barbizon School. Spitzweg's brushwork became increasingly loose and open in the following years, with a certain development towards Impressionism. The brightly illuminated landscapes he painted during this period contain few to no human figures, with the focus lying primarily in the depiction of phenomena of light and nature.
The present work, which Siegfried Wichmann dates within this late period to around 1875 - 1800, is populated by just two comparatively small figures of children striding towards a deep gorge on the left. The artist focusses the majority of his attention on the depiction of the narrow mountain valley, seen from a low-lying viewpoint. The observer's gaze is led via the path leading from the lower edge of the image over the children and the water mill placed almost exactly in the centre of the work towards the steep woods with the rock face towering above them and into the lightly clouded sky in the upper edge of the work. Spitzweg spent a long time perfecting this motif, as shown not only by two sketches and two studies of this composition but also by the numerous variations on the subject which he painted. The composition of the present work is most similar to a slightly smaller version in private ownership (Wichmann, ibid., p. 494, no. 1333).