Vienna National Library

I took this photo in Vienna's National Library because it reminded me of Carl Spitzweg's 'The Book Worm'

Carl Spitzweg, who painted The Bookworm in 1850 (similar to the photo only from a different angle and far better lighting ; ) was a German romanticist painter and poet, and is considered to be one of the most important representatives of the Biedermeier era.

Trained as a Pharmacist. He attained his qualification from the University of Munich, but while recovering from an illness he also took up painting.

Spitzweg was self-taught as an artist.

In Central Europe, Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European Revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it.

Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early nineteenth-century German history.

The first trend is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class, and with it a new kind of audience. The early Lieder of Schubert, which could be performed at the piano without substantial musical training, illustrate the broadened reach of art in this period. Further, Biedermeier writers were themselves mainly middle-class, as opposed to the Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility.

The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and (at least in public) the non-political. Due to the strict publication rules and censorship, writers primarily concerned themselves with non-political subjects, like historical fiction and country life. Political discussion was usually confined to the home, in the presence of close friends.


Carl Spitzweg's 1850 'The Book Worm'