Otto Günther, The Day Laborers' Table [Am Tagelöhnertisch] (1875)
This painting depicts a poor family of day laborers in the Thuringian region of central Germany. The artist, Otto Edmund Günther (1838-84), studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art from 1858 to 1861 and at the School of Art in Weimar from 1863 to 1866. After executing many drawings of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Günther began to shift his attention to scenes of ordinary Germans and the everyday hardships they faced. From 1876 to 1880, he held a professorial post at the Academy of Art in Königsberg. After his tenure there, he returned to Weimar, where he remained until his death.
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