The Silesian Weavers

Hübner’s painting is a key work of Düsseldorf genre painting, which once again became politically topical during the Vormärz (1818-1848) period. In his description of the precarious situation of the weavers, who are impotently exposed to the power of the cloth merchant, Hübner attacked the very conditions that in the selfsame year led to the Weavers’ Uprising in Silesia. While the socially critical theme is new, in terms of the style of the Old Masters and the sentimental mood it is firmly in keeping with the tradition of the Schadow school, as influenced by the Nazarenes. The painting was read by his contemporaries as an expression of socialist sentiments, and it became very well known as a result of the many exhibitions to which it travelled, the two small-sized copies he made, and its lithographic reproduction. After the first version of 1844 (LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn), Hübner painted the Düsseldorf variant in the same year, which repeats the theme but is smaller and was exhibited in New York as early as 1849. The third version was painted in 1846 and was tellingly acquired by Walter Ulbricht (Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin). (Nicole Roth)