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Thread: Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) is considered the greatest German landscape artist of his time. A key Romantic painter he explored the metaphysical role of human & nature. He truly captured the sublime.
Born in Greifswald, he trained in Copenhagen & settled in Dresden (1798). A seminal moment for him was watching a brother drown under ice. Mood was paramount in his training as well as an effort to see God in the world. Ship wreck (1798), Kilde (1797) & Self-portrait (c1800)
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In Dresden he experimented with print making. He mostly worked in Ink & watercolours at the time. He began his lifelong love affair with landscape visiting Bohemia & the Harz Mountains. Dolmen (1807), Window (1805-6) & Elbtal (1807)
His method was to sketch landscapes with pencil & apply his moody colours from memory in the studio. In 1805 he won Goethe’s Weimar competition. Goethe was a major admirer. Bohemian Landscape (1808), Self-portrait (1892) & Seashore (c1807)
In 1808 he completed his early masterpiece Cross in the Mountains, an altarpiece. It combines interest in the spirituality & metaphysics of landscape. It met with criticism for over-emphasising the landscape. The artist saw sunlight as the light of God. Fog (1808) & Abbey (1810)
The Prussian Crown Prince bought 2 of his works granting him success & election to the Berlin Academy (1810). In 1818 he became a member of the Saxon Academy. Landscape(1810), Monk (1809) & Rainbow (1809-10)
He married in 1818 & had 3 children. Some see a lighter less sombre approach in his works around this time & the greater importance of figures. He was taken up by Russian aristocracy. Morning (1810-11), Garden Terrace (1811) & Hunter (1811)
Friedrich sought to see God in nature & that to concentrate on the sublime in the landscape was to contemplate a higher power. Winter landscape (1811), Landscape with Church (1811) & Harbour (1815-16)
His landscapes are full of religious imagery, whether steeples, nets or spiritual lighting. City at Moonrise (1817), Neubrandenburg (1817) & Greifswald (1816-17)
Friedrich included himself in his compositions, inviting the viewer to see the metaphysical landscape with himself as cypher. Wanderer (1817-18), Sailing Vessel (1818) & Greifswald Harbour (1818-20)
The artist created astonishing works of daring lighting including Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819-20), Drifting Clouds (1820) & the serene Midday (1820-5). He seeks to contrast the immensity of the natural world with humanity.
Kugelgens Grab (1821-2) shows his interest in the sobriety of death but emphasises the religious power of life with silhouetted crosses. The Evening (1820-1) & Moon Rising over the Sea (1821) are metaphysical ideas of the light of salvation
Moon Rising over the Sea (1822), The Tree of Crows (1822) & Village Landscape in the Morning Light (Lone Tree), 1822)
Woman at a Window (1822), The Sea of Ice (the Wreck of Hope, 1824) & the Cemetery Gate (1825-30)
The Grosse Gehege near Dresden (1832), Ploughed Field (c1830) & the Oak Tree in Snow (1829)
By 1820 his popularity had fallen, & he became a recluse. He suffered poverty & in 1835 he had a stroke which prevented him painting in oil. His last great masterpiece was a black painting Seashore by Moonlight (1835-6). Sunset (c1835) & the Stages of Life (c1835)
He completed a number of portraits in the mid 1830s including of himself in nature. Extreme poverty overtook him by 1838 & he died ignored by the art community that once feted him. To see his work best visit the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin
Here’s more on my artwork. https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1295798785478729730
