abstract:The Bookworm () is an 1850 oil-on-canvas painting by the German painter and poet Carl Spitzweg. The picture is typical of Spitzweg's humorous, anecdotal style and it is characteristic of Biedermeier art in general.
The stories were written, so to speak, in front of a mirror, by a man hoping to drown the tiny, shivering thrills of the chronic bookworm with the low snarl of a more universal emotion, that of dread.