Gnome looking at railroad
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| Gnome looking at railroad |
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| Carl Spitzweg , around 1848 |
| oil on wood |
| 24.0 x 14.7 cm |
Gnome, looking at the railway , also gnomes , is a painting by Carl Spitzweg , which was created around 1848 in oil on wood (the lid of a cigar box). Today it is in a private collection in Franconia .
Image description
Opposite the center of the picture, a little to the right, stands a short, bearded figure with a red-brown hooded cloak in the shadow of a cave entrance in the rugged, brown rock of a mountain flank. The cave entrance is lined with roots and leafy branches. The gnome stands out clearly from the landscape behind, bathed in bright sunlight. With his arms crossed behind his back, he looks down into the valley, where on the left side a moving steam train with several wagons can be seen. The further course of the route towards the center of the picture can be guessed at. There, in the background, the church and other buildings of a village shine in the sun, and white clouds tower above a blue sky. In the lower right corner of the picture there is Spitzweg's monogram , the S with the stylized Spitzweck .
reception
For Klaus Dietz, an expert at the Ketterer Kunst auction house, the painting is “an excellent example of Spitzweg's compositional mastery.” The old world of fairy tales and legends is also critically contrasted with the new world of change and technical progress. The gnome as the embodiment of untouched nature is only certain for the moment; sooner or later he will be displaced by the new developments.
Florian Illies describes the picture in Zeit magazine as "perhaps the craziest painting by Spitzweg" and uses the auction meeting on April 5, 2008 to mock the Transrapid Munich - the failure of which was declared on the day the article was published - and its supporters Edmund Stoiber . Illies asks whether the gnome, looking at the railroad, is a step backwards compared to the four years older painting Rain, Steam and Speed - the train of the "Great Western Railway" by William Turner , and answers it by saying that on the one hand the petty bourgeoisie of Spitzweg Become visible in paintings. On the other hand, Spitzweg masterfully caricatures his present "as a fairytale dwarf world [...] that believes that it can observe the comings and goings of modernity from its safe caves." Spitzweg does not spare himself criticism - the painter's perspective shows that his position is even deeper in the cave than that of the gnome. In a self-ironic way, Spitzweg commented on "his reputation as a Biedermeier Sunday painter who wanted to stop time." In conclusion, Illies praised Spitzweg as "one of the best painters [...] in the German 19th century, especially in terms of painting and composition."
Provenance
Gnome, looking at the railroad , initially belonged to Major Karl Loreck, a nephew by marriage from Spitzweg, and then passed into the possession of Hugo Helbing , Munich. It subsequently became part of the E. Ullmann Collection, Vienna. Then it went to H. Meyer, Munich and in 1951 to HE Martini, Augsburg. The alternative title Gnomen was probably created during this time because Günther Rönnefahrt only had a black and white photograph for his catalog raisonné and he believed he recognized a second gnome in the shadow of the cave. On April 5, 2008, the painting, which had been estimated at 30,000 euros, was sold to a Franconian collector at Ketterer Kunst for 69,600 euros.
literature
- Spitzweg, Carl Gnom, looking at the railway (gnomes). Ketterer Kunst, April 2008, accessed August 1, 2010 .
- Auction 334 - Dead Hares Bring Auction Room to Life. Ketterer Kunst, April 2008, accessed August 1, 2010 .
- Florian Illies : "Gnome, looking at the railroad": On April 5th, perhaps the craziest painting by Spitzweg will be auctioned . In: Zeit magazine . No. 14 , 2008, p. 51 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Spitzweg, Carl Gnom, Railway viewing (Gnomen). Ketterer Kunst, April 2008, accessed August 1, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c d Florian Illies : "Gnom, Railway Viewing": On April 5th, perhaps the craziest painting by Spitzweg will be auctioned . In: Zeit magazine . No. 14 , 2008, p. 51 .
- ↑ Cf. Spitzweg, Carl Gnom, Eisenbahn viewing (Gnomen). Ketterer Kunst, April 2008, accessed August 1, 2010 . And: dead rabbits enliven the auction room. (No longer available online.) Ketterer Kunst, April 2008, archived from the original on May 5, 2011 ; Retrieved August 5, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
