Spitzweg was born in
Munich,
Bavaria, the second of three sons of Franziska (née Schmutzer) and Simon Spitzweg. His mother belonged to Munich's upper middle class as the daughter of a wealthy fruit wholesaler. The family's property at Neuhausergasse (today: Neuhauser Straße) 14 was a stately property that later gave Carl Spitzweg financial independence through his inheritance. Carl's father came from the village of Unterpfaffenhofen near the town of Fürstenfeldbruck in today's Fürstenfeldbruck district (in Upper Bavaria), where his family had become wealthy. Until 1807, Spitzweg's father's business base was the trade in spices in Munich. His relatives controlled thriving fruit businesses. Simon Spitzweg was an educated businessman who gained respect and reputation in Munich through his political activities. Carl Spitzweg had two brothers whose careers were just as determined by their father as his own. The eldest, Simon, was to take over the business, Carl was to become a pharmacist and the youngest, Eduard, was to become a doctor. In Munich, he suffered under his strict father, who tried to forbid him from drawing. After his mother died, in 1819, in same year, his father married his late wife's sister, Maria Krescence. She took great care of Carl and defended him against his father. From 1819, Carl Spitzweg attended the Munich college and went through the two Latin preparatory classes and the two preparatory classes with varying degrees of success. In 1824, he left the high school, today's
Wilhelmsgymnasium, after the second (of four) high school years. Although his artistic talent was early, with his first drawing from 1823, Carl Spitzweg was obedient to his father and began his apprenticeship in the “city pharmacy” with Sigmund Lober in February 1825. On December 1, 1828, during the last year of his apprenticeship, his father died. In 1829 he worked in the “Löwenapotheke” in the city of
Straubing. He lived there for a year, and was acquainted with theater people and painters. The same year, his eldest brother died working as a merchant in
Alexandria,
Egypt. Spitzweg began studying pharmacy, botany and chemistry at the University of Munich in 1830, which he completed with honors in 1832. He was now licensed as a practicing pharmacist. In 1833, Spitzweg gave up his career as a pharmacist. During a spa stay in Bad Sulz,
Peißenberg, after an illness, he decided to devote himself to painting in a full-time level. The decision was made easier by the fact that he received the share of his inheritance at this time. Spitzweg was self-taught as an artist, starting by copying the works of
Flemish masters. He contributed with his first work to satiric magazines. In 1835, he became a member of the Munich Art Association. This was followed by trips to
Dalmatia (1839),
Venice (1850), and, in the company of the landscape painter
Eduard Schleich, to
Paris,
London, where they visited the first world exhibition, in 1851. On the way back home, he also visited
Antwerp (1851),
Frankfurt am Main and
Heidelberg. Spitzweg spent his travels to these European cities studying the works of various artists and refining his technique and style. His later paintings and drawings are often humorous
genre works. Many of his paintings depict sharply characterized eccentrics, for example
The Bookworm (1850) and
The Hypochondriac (c. 1865, in the
Neue Pinakothek,
Munich). Since 1844 he was an employee of the weekly magazine
Fliegenden Blätter, where he published numerous humorous drawings. Spitzweg died of a stroke, shortly after the death of his younger brother, on September 23, 1885, at the age of 77. He was found dead in his Munich apartment. He was buried in the
Alter Südfriedhof, in
Munich. ==Artwork==