(Königsberg 1814–1879 Düsseldorf)
A Pettifogger, signed, dated Carl Hübner (18)46, oil on canvas, 37 x 42 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Bubenik, Munich, no. 1030;
Sale, Karl & Faber, Munich, 30 May 1979, lot 625;
Private Collection, Germany.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Liliane Landes, Carl Wilhelm Hübner 1814–1879. Genre und Zeitgeschichte im deutschen Vormärz, Munich, Berlin 2008, p. 534, no. 1846–10a.

The genre painter Carl Wilhelm Hübner trained at the Düsseldorf Academy, and founded his own studio there, where he later achieved his artistic breakthrough with the painting "The Silesian Weavers" in 1844. The depiction of social grievances, suffering communities, and paradigmatic rural scenes replete with wood thieves, poachers, usurers, and emigrants combine to make the social situation in the Vormärz period the subject of his work. Hübner is considered the main representative of the Düsseldorf social genre, which was more or less limited to the years 1844-47, but significantly contributed to the development and acceptance of depictions of poverty in 19th century German genre painting.
Carl Wilhelm Hübner was the father of Julius Hübner (1842-1874), who was also a genre painter.