August Franz Schelver, native of Osnabrück, was initially trained by the portrait and landscape painter Heinrich Neelmayer in his hometown before he studied at the Munich Academy from 1826 to 1832. Schelver was mainly active as painter of battle scenes and genre scenes. In our work he addresses the theme of almsgiving. A landowner helps a journeyman, which earns him the disapproving glance of his wife. Schelver, a typical representative of Biedermeier painting, delivers particularly convincing proof of his mastery through the casual arrangement of the figures and the poised depiction of the horses, with a detailled stroke of the brush he renders a particularly nuanced account of their coats. [FS]