author
Robert Reinick
1805–1852
A Romantic-era German painter-poet, he moved easily between canvas, verse, and music. His writing later found new life in songs by composers such as Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Max Bruch.
1 Audiobook
The King of Root Valley and his curious daughter
by Robert Reinick
About the author
Born in Danzig on February 22, 1805, Robert Reinick grew up to become both a painter and a poet, a mix that gave his writing a vivid, picture-like quality. He studied art in Berlin and later became associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting, a major center of German Romantic art in the 19th century.
Reinick is remembered not only for his poems but also for the way they connected with music. Robert Schumann worked with him on the libretto for the opera Genoveva, and other composers, including Hugo Wolf and Max Bruch, set his texts to music. That lasting musical afterlife helped keep his words in circulation long after his death.
He died in Dresden on February 7, 1852, just before his forty-seventh birthday. Though not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, he remains an appealing figure for readers who enjoy lyrical writing shaped by the imagination of a visual artist.