Carl Canow: The Singer’s Curse

• 1862, oil on canvas, height: 118 cm

The realistic portrait and engrossing genre paintings from the Wismar painter, Carl Canow (1814-1870), still testify today to the civic artistic commitment in Wismar. In the year of death of the poet Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862), Canow brought his popular ballad “The Singer’s Curse” onto canvas.

Away from the artistic centres a wide art scene developed between Romanticism and the “Gründerzeit.” The bourgeoisie became the most important clients: they decorated their homes with genre paintings and ensured their worth through diverse portraits.