Lot 1680 Dα

Heinrich Bürkel was born in Pirmasens in Westphalia but moved to Munich at the age of 20 in order to study at the Academy there. He remained closely linked to the city throughout his life, and his painting became emblematic for the Munich Biedermeier school. Bürkel was highly active as an artist during the mid-1830s, and his innovative landscape and genre paintings achieved renown both in- and outside Germany. Like the works of Carl Spitzweg, a close friend of Bürkel, his paintings are still popular today for their sensitive and humorous depictions of the daily lives of farmers, craftsmen and hunters.

The "Upturned Hay Wagon" is a motif that Bürkel returned to numerous times and in numerous seasons as of 1841. It was one of his most popular motifs. Hans Peter Bühler and Albrecht Krückl, authors of his monograph, describe the depiction as follows: “The scene is full of latent, mischievous humour, similar to the works of his friend Carl Spitzweg. The way the peasants gaze out into the expanse of empty landscape makes the scene appear grotesquely hopeless. The brown horse lowers its head in guilt and helplessness, whereas the white horse is so ashamed that it has bowed its head down completely to nibble sheepishly on a tuft of grass.”