Lot 13 Dα

Few paintings by Carl Spitzweg are as enigmatic, multi-faceted and at the same time of such succinct quality as this image of a knitting gunner, which was created around 1846 and is rightly regarded as one of the artist's most outstanding works.

The soldier, standing next to an imposing cannon, gazes into the distance, his right hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun. Far away, we see what has caught his attention: Clouds of smoke rising up into the sky. The gunner, it soon becomes clear, is not a figure to be reckoned with, as we notice the knitting he has just been working on in his left hand. The more closely you look at the picture, the more you realise that his military appearance is just a charade - his uniform is outdated, the cap and rifle are set aside like props, and the defence system has seen better days. The soldier - who is quite elderly - is obviously not ready for battle, the old cannon is not in working order.

Carl Spitzweg depicted the theme of the knitting soldier many times, beginning in 1838. The motifs of these paintings differ, but they always show a soldier knitting, yawning or simply crouched gazing at an imagined danger in the distance. These pictures are Spitzweg's commentary on a military phenomenon that had been spreading since 1830, especially in small-state Germany. The revolutionary unrest following the July revolts in France led to the formation of private armies and militias in the towns and villages of the, often very small, German principalities. The depiction of these armed units is comical, the recruits and the equipment were unsuitable for national defence - the gunner standing guard, listless and absorbed in his knitting, is symbolic of this absurd militarism. Carl Spitzweg himself was a member of an artist's free corps, but this was more of a nuisance to him. His letters show that he was not particularly fond of anything military, marches or parades.

As in other masterpieces by Spitzweg, the message is also conveyed here through an enchanting painterly quality. This is especially evident in the crumbling bricks overgrown by plants and grasses, as well as in the depiction of the cannon and the weathered wall against which the sentry has leant his rifle. Spitzweg put a great deal of effort into studying military equipment, as we know from the large number of sketches he made whenever he came across a garrison, a fortification or a cannon on his travels.

The first owner of the painting was Prince Franz von Colloredo-Mansfeld in Prague, who presumably also owned the second version. The princely collector understood the military and political-historical subtlety of the work, appreciated Spitzweg's humour, and also valued the artistic quality of his paintings.