The intercepted love letter
The intercepted love letter |
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Carl Spitzweg , around 1860 |
Oil on canvas |
54.2 x 32.3 cm |
Georg Schäfer Museum , Schweinfurt |
The intercepted love letter (painted around 1860) is one of the most famous pictures by the Munich painter Carl Spitzweg .
description
The picture shows a student, recognizable by his cap, the Cerevis , who is lowering a sealed love letter on a thread to the open window of the apartment below his student room. In the lower window you can see a young woman so intensely involved in handicraft that she doesn't even notice the letter. Another woman, presumably her aunt or governess , sees the letter and leaves her mouth open in amazement.
The sand-colored facade is richly structured, sloping shadows show that the scene takes place in a city with narrow streets. Furthermore, Spitzweg added small still lifes to the picture:
- a bird farmer,
- the phoenix insurance shield ,
- a pair of beaking pigeons.
Student with student cap
Phoenix Insurance letter and sign
literature
- Kristiane Müller; Eberhard Urban : "Carl Spitzweg - Popular and unknown pictures along with drawings and studies supplemented by poems and letters, testimonials and documents" . Edition Current
- Jens Christian Jensen: "Carl Spitzweg" . Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2007. ISBN 3-7913-3747-5