The Bookworm

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bookworm (Carl Spitzweg)
The Bookworm
Carl Spitzweg , around 1850
Oil on canvas
49.5 x 26.8 cm
Georg Schäfer Museum

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

Version in Milwaukee

Spitzweg painted the first version around 1845 (WVZ 540), but did not sell it until 1860. Today it is privately owned. Around 1850 he painted another copy and listed it in his sales directory as “The Librarian” under no. 102 (WVZ 539). It was sold to Ignaz Kuranda in Vienna in 1852 and is now part of the collection of the Georg Schäfer Museum in Schweinfurt . Spitzweg painted the third copy (WVZ 541) a year later and sent it for sale to his New York art dealer Herman Schaus in New York. This copy came to the Milwaukee Public Library via the René von Schleinitz art collection , now on permanent loan to the Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee . There are also five other works by Spitzweg with a similar motif (WVZ 534-538).

description

The picture shows a bibliophile man, colloquially known as a “bookworm”, on a ladder in a library and caricatures one of the odd male figures that are particularly typical of Spitzweg.

The bookworm is in a library from the second half of the 18th century, the books of which are systematically sorted according to areas of knowledge, a system that the Göttingen University Library introduced in 1737.

A beam of light illuminates the scene. Most likely it is an opening through which rays of the sun fall. The bookworm reads with concentration in a book that he holds close to his short-sighted eyes. In his right hand he holds a second open book and between his knees and under his left arm he has tucked another book.

More bookshelves can be seen in the background with some books missing.

comment

The spines of the book are reminiscent of similar details in Dutch pictures of the 17th century. The department in which the bookworm is currently staying is entitled Metaphysics . Possibly a scholar who is foreign to the world is to be represented, who does not look to the right nor to the left and has completely shielded himself from the outside world.

The composition of the picture basically consists of two diagonals. A cone of light falling from an invisible skylight in the baroque ceiling painting of the library with a blue sky depiction around midday illuminates the bookshelf and the figure, and only touches the edge of the partially recognizable globe at the bottom left. The other diagonal leads from the Metaphysik lettering on the upper left of the shelf to the lower right over the incline of the stepladder into a bottomless, slightly nebulous or dusty void. In the center of the picture, the figure of the slightly caricatured old man with a handkerchief, sagging shoulders, and recognizable nearsightedness, with books in danger of falling between his knees and left elbow, symbolizes an ancient contrast. That between the banality of the physical and the clear heights to which the human spirit can soar.

“Is a book lover shown who knows he is completely at home? A thirst for knowledge who expects truths from metaphysics for his inclined life? Or do we see a self-sufficient, total ignoramus who has found his personal limited happiness and therefore provokes the viewer to smile? "

- Jensen : Carl Spitzweg

gallery

  • Preliminary drawing

  • Sign with the inscription Metaphysics (Museum Georg Schäfer)

  • Detail (Museum Georg Schäfer)

literature

Web links

Commons : The Bookworm  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Wichmann: Carl Spitzweg. 2002, pp. 277-279.
  2. ^ Image description and interpretation on the website Mahagoni - magazine for style, way of life and culture. (Accessed November 2, 2016)