CARL SPITZWEG (1808 Munich 1885) Oriental seated... Lot 3120

CARL SPITZWEG (1808 Munich 1885) Oriental seated to the left in a bazaar. Circa 1852/53. Oil on cardboard. Inscribed on verso lower left with estate stamp: S im Rhombus Spitzweg. 28.7 × 22.4 cm. Provenance: - Karl Kaiser Collection. - Auction, Hugo Helbing, Munich, 20.6.1906, No. 266 (at that time as "Turkish merchant, sitting in the bazaar"). - Collection Annemarie Ericsson, Schaffhausen. - Auction Koller, Zurich, 1.6.1989, lot 5082. - Private collection Principality of Liechtenstein. Exhibitions: - Munich 1906, Bavarian Art 1800-1850. glass palace, June-July 1906, no. 596 (then as "Smoking Turk"). - Munich 1985/86, Carl Spitzweg, Haus der Kunst, 23.11.1985-2.2.1986 No. 332 (with label on verso). - Munich 2003, Carl Spitzweg. Travels and wanderings in Europe. The happy corner. Haus der Kunst, Munich, 24.1.-4.5.2003, No. 54 (label on verso). Literature: - Günther Roennefahrt: Carl Spitzweg. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis seiner Gemälde, Ölstudien und Aquarelle, Munich 1960, p. 201f., No. 654 (with ills.). - Siegfried Wichmann: Oriental Representations in the Work of Carl Spitzweg. Documentation, Starnberg-Munich R.f.v.u.a.K. 1975, no. 11, Bayer. Staatsbibl. Munich, inv. no. Ana 656 SW 92. - Exhibition catalogue: Carl Spitzweg and the French draughtsmen Daumier, Grandville, Gavarni, Doré. Ed. by Sigfried Wichmann, 1985, cat. no. 332 (with colour illustrations). - Siegfried Wichmann: Carl Spitzweg, Munich 1990, pp. 119 and 210, no. 68. - Siegfried Wichmann: Carl Spitzweg. Index of works. Gemälde und Aquarelle, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 241 f., no. 424 (with colour illustration). - Exhibition catalogue: Carl Spitzweg. Travels and Wanderings in Europe. The happy corner. Ed. by Siegfried Wichmann, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 123 f., no. 54 (with colour illustration). "Spitzweg painted this work directly in London at the World's Fair. (...) We see how he already uses the influences of the French school around Delacroix and models with the colour by letting the red tones shine out of the dark red. The silhouette-like composition against a light, yellowish ground also corresponds to the conception of the French Oriental painters. The hurried painting style also corresponded to the English school, which he could observe closely in London" (Siegfried Wichmann: 1990, p. 210). The "exotic" and the "Orient" occupied Carl Spitzweg increasingly since the end of the 1840s. In a multi-layered group of works he expresses his fascination for this theme. The anecdotal aspects and narrative of his Biedermeier early work began to recede in favour of an open and light-flooded painting. Pursuing this growing interest, he travelled to Schloss Wiesentheid in 1848 together with his painter friend Eduard Schleich the Elder (1812-1874) to study the paintings of the artists of the Barbizon School and the Oriental painters. In 1951 he received important impulses in Paris, where he travelled to visit the Industrial Exhibition and the Exhibition of Oriental Painters. He then visits the World's Fair in London and, under the strong influence of the country contributions of the Near Eastern centers, paints a whole series of paintings, studies and sketches on the theme of the Orient. "According to an entry in the diary of the London trip in 1851, Spitzweg sketched the work offered here in London. It concerns the large Oriental section within the London exhibition, which was constructed in a bazaar-like style" (ibid. p. 240). Although only hinted at in the loose brushwork, the pictorial space of this oriental scene contains a complex setting. The merchant in the centre, looking to the left, is illuminated by a yellow cloth hanging from the wall, with a large dark door at his back. In the left half of the picture, the background extends far into the dark, winding aisles of the bazaar. Spitzweg dynamically staggers the scene with a few brushstrokes in dramatic changes of light, with the seated merchant forming the resting centre. This group of works of the "Orientals", which is relatively rarely offered on the art market, thus not only conveys Spitzweg's early fascination for this cultural area, which he had already become acquainted with at an early age through the descriptions of his older brother Simon, who lived in Cairo and Alexandria, but also reflects Spitzweg's personal attitude to life in its calmness and composure.