The Bookworm

The Bookworm ( The Librarian ) is one of the most famous motifs of the Munich painter Carl Spitzweg. There are three paintings with this title.

History

The first version Spitzweg painted around 1850 and led it in his sales directory as " The Librarian " under No. 102. It was sold in 1852 to Ignaz Kuranda in Vienna and now belongs to the collection of the Museum Georg Schäfer in Schweinfurt. Another equally large picture painted Spitzweg a year later and sent it for sale at his New York art dealer Herman Schaus in New York. This one came on the art collection of René Schleinitz in the Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee. A final version Spitzweg painted in 1884.

Description

The picture shows a man bibliophile, colloquially called " bookworm " on a ladder in a library and caricatures one of the most typical for Spitzweg grumpy male single figures.

The Bookworm is located in a library in the second half of the 18th century, whose books are systematically arranged according to fields of knowledge, a system that introduced the Göttingen University Library in 1737.

A beam of light illuminates the scene. Most likely it is an opening, through which the sun's rays fall. The Bookworm reads concentrated in a book that he keeps close to his myopic eyes. In his right hand he holds a second open book and between the knees and under his left arm he has ever clamped another book.

In background are further bookshelves are seen in which some books are missing.

Comment

Spitzweg caricatured a somewhat caught acting human types. The figure shown is fictitious, but Spitzweg an unnamed well-known old man used as a model for preliminary studies. In what amount and where the Büchernarr stands on a ladder, is unclear. The only clue is the celestial globe in the lower left corner of the image. It is also shown only a small part of the room, so you can not estimate the size of the library.

The spine reminiscent of similar details on Dutch pictures of the 17th century. The department in which the Bookworm is currently located is overwritten with metaphysics. Possibly should thus be shown an unworldly scholar who does not look right nor left and has completely shielded from the outside world.

" Is shown a book lover who knows how completely at home? A Thirsty knowledge, the truths of metaphysics expected to be tending to life? Or we see a self-sufficient, total ignoramuses who has found his personal fortune restricted and therefore provokes the viewer to smile? "

Gallery

Sign saying metaphysics

Neck