Among Busch 's last works was the stories Clement Dove , the Poet Thwarted ( Balduin Bählamm , der verhinderte Dichter ) ( 1883 ) and Painter Squirtle ( Maler Klecksel ) ( 1884 ) , both of which focus on artistic failure , and indirectly his own failure . Both stories begin with a preface , which , for biographer Joseph Kraus , was bravura pieces of " Komische Lyrik " — German comic poetry . Clement Dove ridicule the bourgeois amateur poet circle of Munich , " The Crocodiles " ( Die Krokodile ) , and their prominent members Emanuel Geibel , Paul von Heyse and Adolf Wilbrandt . Painter Squirtle criticize the bourgeois art connoisseur , who believe the worth of art is gauged by its price .