Carl Spitzweg by Peter Scheuch

"Happy days"

15 January 2011 - 4 December 2011

The Sunday Walk by Carl Spitzweg (1841)

Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885) is one of the most important representatives of the Biedermeier * painting. Carl Spitzweg painted a gently, ironical portrayal of the petit-bourgeois contentment in the 19th century. It made him into one of Germany's most beloved painters. Do you want to continue or to become happy, visit between 15/1/2011 and 4/12/2011 the tender tin figures dioramas Peter Scheuch made based on the paintings of Spitzweg.

" Der ewige Hochzeiter "	Peter Scheuch in front of his collection	" The Bookworm "

Biedermeier

In Central Europe Biedermeier refers to the historical period following the French revolution and Napoleon. The absolute power of the nobility and the Church was broken and influenced by the industrial revolution a new class of middle-class (... and the proletariat) was rising. Franz Schubert is probably the best-known Biedermeier artist. His lieder and chamber music were not composed for the Court or in Church. He sold sheet music that was intended to be played at home. It was music for the middle-class man and it was about the middle-class man's live. What Schubert meant for music, was Spitzweg for painting! He painted daily events for the upper-middle-class man.

Zeitungsleser im Garten	Institutsspaziergang	Der Kaktusliebhaber

Biedermeier  is a rather strange name for a period. The name Biedermeier comes from the name of a petit bourgeois figure in a German newspapers feuilleton.

In the Netherlands , we didn't had anything like a Biedermeier culture. We went against the spirit of the age. In the 17th century, we were a republic dominated by merchants and now we got a royal family, but with the liberal king-merchant: William I. In the Netherlands rised also a liberal middle class like in the countries around, which we find described in one of Hollands most well-known books, the Camera Obscura of Hildebrand; a book that completely fits in the Biedermeier culture.