The Intercepted Love Letter

The Intercepted Love Letter
Artist	Carl Spitzweg
Year	c. 1860
Medium	Oil-on-canvas
Dimensions	54,2 cm × 32,3 cm (213 in × 127 in)
Location	Museum Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt

The Intercepted Love Letter (German: Der abgefangene Liebesbrief) is an oil-on-canvas painting by German painter Carl Spitzweg. It was painted c. 1860 and its now housed at the Museum Georg Schäfer, in Schweinfurt, Germany.

Description

The painting depicts a student, recognizable by his cap, the Cerevis, who uses a thread to lower a sealed love letter to the open window of the apartment under his room. In the lower window, viewers can see a young woman so busy with her handwork that she does not notice the letter. Another woman, probably her aunt or governess, notices the letter and opens her mouth in astonishment. The scene is filled with the sense of humour and irony typical of Spitzweg.

The sand-colored facade is richly structured, oblique shadows show that the scene takes place in a town with narrow streets. Spitzweg also added small details to the picture: a bird cage, the Phoenix Insurance Shield and a couple of pigeons, in an ironic metaphor for the two youngsters.[1][2]

References

1. Sabine Schulze (Hrsg): Gärten: Ordnung – Inspiration – Glück, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main & Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, (ISBN 978-3-7757-1870-7) (German)
2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: German Masters of the Nineteenth Century: Paintings and Drawings from the Federal Republik of Germany, Harry N. Abrams, New York 1981, (ISBN 0-87099-263-5)