Spitzweg was regarded as the secluded "painter-poet of Munich's Heumarkt," an eccentric
who never displayed his extensive traveling. With Spitzweg Biedermeier painting as such
comes to an end. He is still describing this world, but with the objectivity and distance of the
observer. He can invest the seemingly idyllic scenes and subjects with a humour that is often
biting. The Poor Poet is and apt example of this.
Three versions of the Poor Poet are known. It is thought that Etenhuber (1720-82), a poet
living in impoverished circumstances in Munich, was the model. Spitzweg shows the poet
writing in bed to keep warm, for there is snow outside on the roofs and he has no wood to
heat the stove. But he seems unconcerned at his scant means and the leaking roof, and his
pen in his mouth, he counts off the meter of his rhyme on his fingers.
Mit seinem ironisch-überspitzten Gemälde "Der arme Poet" (1839) wies der Maler Carl
Spitzweg früh auf die Existenz eines Kulturprekariats hin.
Man muss nicht Franz Kafkas Hungerkünstler gelesen oder Carl Spitzwegs Armen Poeten im
Museum gesehen haben, um erahnen zu können, dass die Kunst auch gut 100 Jahre nach
Entstehung dieser Werke allzu oft ein "brotloses" Unterfangen ist. Trotz ausgeklügelter
Sozialsysteme lebt die Mehrheit aller Kulturschaffenden auch heute prekär, das heißt, an
oder sogar weit unter der Armutsgrenze. 5000 Euro netto pro Jahr verdienen Österreichs
Kulturschaffende im Durchschnitt aus künstlerischer Tätigkeit, am wenigsten wird mit 3500
Euro in der bildenden Kunst erzielt. https://derstandard.at/2000091942228/Malen-ohne-
Zahlen-Kuenstler-verdienen-nur-5-000-Euro-pro#posting-1036499619
SPITZWEG, Carl : The Poor Poet (1839)
