The Swiss artist called Werner Weber painted this picture in 1936 while living in Nazi Germany. Everyone remembers the films of the book burnings in German cities in May 1933 but the real systematic control of the Reich’s literary landscape reached its peak in early 1936 and it is reasonable to speculate that Weber painted this picture as a small act of resistance -bold enough to nourish his conscience but sufficiently oblique to avoid the attentions of the Gestapo. Had the titles of the books been visible as being by Marx or Einstein or Freud or Remarque, then he’d have soon had that bang on the door in the middle of the night.  

Werner Weber was a Swiss painter and draftsman born on January 1, 1892, in Langnau am Albis, Switzerland. He was the son of a schoolteacher and showed artistic talent early in life. Weber studied drawing and painting in St. Gallen and Zürich before continuing his education in Paris at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs between 1911 and 1914.

His work was strongly influenced by European modernism, though he maintained a personal style focused on landscapes, portraits, and atmospheric studies of rural life. Weber traveled extensively and developed a reputation for expressive use of light and color. Over the course of his career, he produced oil paintings, sketches, and self-portraits that reflected both realism and subtle impressionistic tendencies.

Today, his legacy is preserved through the Werner-Weber-Stiftung which maintains archives and exhibitions of his work.