Carl Spitzweg - The poor poet

• Title: The poor poet (Der arme Poet)
• Artist: Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885)
• Date: 1839
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 36 x 45 cm

“The poor poet” is the most popular painting by German painter Carl Spitzweg. It depicts a poet in his poor attic room, illuminated by a small window. The poet is lying on a mattress set on the ground. He is under a blanket and dressed with a sleeping hat on his head to keep himself warm. Over his head is hanging an umbrella to protect the sleeping area from the moisture dripping from the roof. The room has a furnace to keep warm but it is not on, probably because the poet is too poor to buy wood and would have to burn his own work to heat himself as indicated by the sheets of paper sticking out of the furnace hole and which are labeled “the third bundle of my works”.

The scene has a comic, ironic feel to it with the mess in the room, the leaky roof, the poet’s pen in his mouth, the bundle of written pages which could be burnt. The poet is staring at what might be a flea he is holding between his fingers, possibly to stress the discrepancy between the poet’s claim and his reality.