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Flying Kites
Carl Spitzweg1880/1885
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Berlin, Germany
This painting, flooded with light, is a late work by Spitzweg. It depicts kite-flying, an activity that delights adults and children alike. Spitzweg chose the Theresienwiese on the edge of Munich as the setting for this scene, and the silhouette of the town can be seen disappearing in the background. By means of an unusually tall, narrow format, Spitzweg lends a sense of infinitude to the sky, awakening in the viewer an involuntary longing to share the kite’s lightness.
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Details
- Title: Flying Kites
- Creator: Carl Spitzweg
- Date Created: 1880/1885
- Physical Dimensions: w12.0 x h38.0 cm
- Type: Painting
- Technique and material: Oil on cardboard
- Inv.-No.: A I 1033
- ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-815114
- External link: Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Copyrights: Text: © Prestel Verlag / Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: © b p k - Photo Agency / Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders
- Collection: Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Artist biography: Carl Spitzweg was a German Romantic painter and poet and one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era. As an artist he was self-taught and started his training by copying the compositions of Flemish masters. During his journeys to a number of European art centres such as Prague, Venice, Paris and London he became influenced by several painters and their techniques and styles. His later artworks are characterized by humorous genre works. Among his best known paintings are 'The Bookworm' (1850) and 'The Poor Poet' (ca. 1839).
- Artist Place of Death: Munich, Germany
- Artist Place of Birth: Unterpfaffenhofen, Germany
- Artist Dates: 1808-02-05/1885-09-23
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