Carl Spitzweg

Long,long ago and far away,when I was a teenager spending afternoons in the libraries (instead of being at school) I remember seeing certain paintings by some german painter and in the corner of my mind I registered him as somebody I liked. Now,decades later I decided to find him,but of course it was like searching for a needle in a haystack - the only things I remember were "german" and "painter".

Thanks to internet, I have finally traced him - Carl Spitzweg - surely he lived in different times and one might describe his paintings as cutesy,but to me he is clear spiritual ancestor of Norman Rockwell - they both love their subjects (paintings are always full of delightful little details). As opposite to some other artists who share their nightmares with everybody, Spitzweg and Rockwell deliberately and decidedly focus only on happy little everyday moments. Even when Spitzweg paints night watch sleeping alone in the middle of the square,with starry sky above him,he does it in such nice gently way that we are not laughing at him,we somehow feel for him.

Seeing Spitzweg's eccentric and likable characters (in mostly crowded paintings with lots of beautiful dreamy architecture) reminds me how much I always loved similar much older paintings by old dutch painters (you know,those with lot of people skating on frozen rivers and so on) so maybe this was connection between them,kind of torch pasing.