Nachtwächter bei Mondschein, Hund und Katze. Ca. 1870.
Oil on cardboard.
Wichmann 1302. With signature paraph in lower left. 15 x 28.3 cm (5.9 x 11.1 in).

• Work of museum quality.
• The night-watchman is one of the most prominent figures in Carl Spitzweg's oeuvre.
• Meticulously executed work in rare landscpae format
• Special night-watchman scene to which Spitzweg adds a narrative dimension with cat and dog as humorist detail.

PROVENANCE: H. Kirchmair (according to sales list, there no. 419).
Private collection Northern Germanyd.

EXHIBITION: 23. Sonderausstellung, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Nov/Dec. 1886, no. 78 (from the ownership of Th. Kirchmair, Munich).
Galerie Kessler, New York, 1916, p. 36.
Carl Spitzweg. Reisen und Wandern in Europa und der Glückliche Winkel, Haus der Kunst, Munich, January 24 - May 18, 2003, p. 289, no. 172 (with color illu.).

LITERATURE: Hermann Uhde-Bernays, Spitzweg. Reime und Bilder, Munich 1915, illu. 24.
Hermann Uhde-Bernays, Carl Spitzweg. Des Meisters Leben und Werk, 5th edition, Munich 1919, illu. 127.
Hyacinth Holland, Karl Spitzweg, Munich 1916, p. 22, illu. 32.
Fritz von Ostini, Aus Carl Spitzwegs Welt, Barmen 1924, p. 45.
Max von Boehn, Carl Spitzweg, 4th dition, Bielefeld/Leipzig 1937, illu. on p. 20.
Alois Elsen, Carl Spitzweg, Vienna 1948, p. 134, plate 79.
Günther Roennefahrt, Carl Spitzweg. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis seiner Gemälde, Ölstudien und Aquarelle, Munich 1960, no. 734.
Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg. Der Nachtwächter. Dokumentation, Starnberg-Munich, R.f.v.u.a.K. 1986, p. 26 (with color illu.), Bavarian State Library Munich, inventory number Ana 656 SW 26.
Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg. Kunst, Kosten und Konflikte, Frankfurt/Berlin 1991, p. 314, no. 419.