Cultured Wednesday: Spitzweg’s Poor Poet

Knowing full well that this is arguably one of his most well known paintings, we still decided on Carl Spitzweg‘s The Poor Poet for today’s post.  This is not the first time we chose the Biedermeier painter – I grew up with a lot of Spitzweg everywhere and am quite familiar with many of his painting, just by osmosis, so to speak.  The Poor Poet was always a favorite, probably because he is such a funny character, almost a caricature, and then again, he isn’t.  Chances are, the artist’s lot as portrayed was and is a lot more common than one might imagine.  In a world where efficiency and materialism rule, the fine arts don’t exactly have their hay-day, and living off one’s creative energy only works for a select few.

So have compassion and do not laugh at him, even if he has his quill in his mouth and his glasses on upside down.  His oven is cold, his roof is leaky, and his room is a squash and a squeeze.  Small wonder the muses do not visit him often these days, and if they do, nobody values their input, or the poet’s output, as they should.  Poor Poet, indeed!

Carl Spitzweg: Der Arme Poet, 1839

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