Carl Spitzweg was a German romantic painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era.

German Romanticism was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German variety developed relatively early, and, in the opening years, coincided with Weimar Classicism (1772–1805).