Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827) had only just turned twenty-five when he wrote The Beggar of the Pont des Arts, a subtle and sensitive story that shows a masterly hand, striving for perfection. In 1824, two men can be found in a Stuttgart gallery day after day; they are worlds apart in background and age, yet they keep finding themselves drawn to the same painting of an unknown young woman: “Nobody could really grasp how the two men had come together, or what interest they could find in each other. People made all kinds of wild guesses, but in the end, the young man could have told them himself, if somebody had only asked him...”