Carl Spitzweg

In the course of the secularisation of church property, hundreds of monasteries were expropriated in the Electorate of Bavaria in 1802/03. However, cultural and intellectual life did not come to a complete standstill as a result - rather, it shifted into the private sphere. Many of the monks who were suddenly left homeless retreated to the seclusion of the forests, where they often led a quiet, modest life. This way of life fascinated artists and writers alike. While Moritz von Schwind and Ludwig Richter took up the theme in a late Romantic, idealising manner, Carl Spitzweg depicted numerous variations of hermits, hermits and monks who, despite their retreat, retained a quiet joie de vivre. In the present oil sketch from his late work, painted in warm golden-brown tones, we also encounter a monk sitting on a stone bench next to a well trough and engrossed in the Holy Scriptures. Scenes like this were particularly popular with the urban public, as they reflected a long-lost yearning for leisure and inner contemplation.