Focus on this artwork and explore the Analysis.
For a long time it was uncertain what the poet was doing with the fingers of his right hand. An obvious assumption is that he is chanting a verse. According to another interpretation, he crushes a flea between his fingers, with which Spitzweg would ironically represent the discrepancy between the poet's claim and his reality.The subject of "artists in a poor room" was dealt with before Spitzweg. The British painter William Hogarth was the first to deal with this subject in 1736. Spitzweg possibly borrowed his title from the drama by August von Kotzebue, The Poor Poet (1812).
The Poor Poet is Spitzweg's earliest masterpiece. The role model was most likely the German poet Mathias Etenhueber, who lived in Munich from 1722 to 1782 and suffered financial hardships. There are three completed versions of the painting, all from 1839: the alleged first version is privately owned and used to be on loan to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. The best known version is now in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich. This painting was given by Spitzweg to his nephew Ludwig as a gift. He offered it to its current owners in 1887. Another version was held in the National Gallery, Berlin. This painting was the subject of a political art campaign by Frank Uwe Laysiepen in 1976. He stole the work, but returned it after a few hours. On September 3, 1989, art robbers stole it together with another one of Spitzweg's works, The Love Letter, from Charlottenburg Palace. To date, neither of the two paintings has been recovered.
Germanisches Nationalmuseum Berlin August von Kotzebue Nuremberg Munich National Gallery Mathias Etenhueber William Hogarth Charlottenburg Palace Neue Pinakothek