Caspar David Friedrich: Germany celebrates the ‘magician of romance’

A man in a dark green tunic and cane stands on the edge of a rock, in the foreground, with his back to the viewer. His red hair is blowing as he gazes at a landscape shrouded in thick fog. Ridges, trees and clearings can be seen, while in the distance, mountains can be seen that smoothly end in plains. The diffuse fog joins the cloud-filled sky.

Although many know this work, which has graced everything from objects to book covers, as an early work of pop art from the last century, little is known about the painter Caspar David Friedrich. The project is called “Wandering over the sea of ​​mist” (1818) and is located in Kunsthalle of Hamburg. It is considered one of his masterpieces romantic movement and one of Friedrich’s most representative works, which thanks to its innovative for its time and thoughtful works is called “magician of romance”. The painting has been interpreted as a symbol of reflection or contemplation of life’s journey, and the landscape is considered to evoke the sublime.

The work focuses, like a series of the artist’s works, on the emerging relationship between man and nature in the Romantic era. Friedrich’s atmospheric landscapes provided an important impetus for a change in mindset, and today, in the face of the threats posed by climate change and environmental destruction, the fateful connection between man and nature that speaks through Friedrich’s works is of existential importance.

He preferred landscapes inspired by trips to the Baltic coast, Bohemia, the Krkonoše and the Harz mountains. He made pencil studies in situ and from memory depicted light and visual phenomena, which no one had ever painted with such emphasis.

Depicting the landscape in a completely new way was Friedrich’s key innovation. He sought not simply to explore the enjoyment of a beautiful view, as in the classical conception, but rather to examine a moment of transcendence, a reunion with the spiritual self through the contemplation of nature. Friedrich was instrumental in transforming the landscape in art from a setting subordinate to human drama to an independent emotional subject. His paintings usually used the Rückenfigur – a person seen from behind, gazing at the view. The viewer is encouraged to place himself in the position of the figure, and experience the wonderful possibilities of nature.

2024 marks the 250th anniversary of his birth and, after the Hamburger Kunsthalle which houses Wanderer over the Sea of ​​Mist and the exhibition he organized for him, it is time for the Alte Nationalgalerie of Berlin (19/04/2024 to 04/08/2024) and the Albertinum (24/08/2024 to 05/01/2025) in Dresden, which organize major tributes to the artist. His work is being re-examined, although in his day his paintings were generally not immediately considered masterpieces, while he was respected in German and Russian circles.

From his death in 1840 until 1890 his work fell into oblivion. The symbolism in his work was then linked to the Central European movements. The early 20th century brought a renewed appreciation of his art, beginning in 1906 with an exhibition of thirty-two of his paintings in Berlin. His work influenced the expressionists and later the surrealists and existentialists.

But in the 1930s his work was used to promote Nazi ideology, which tried to subsume the romantic artist into the nationalist “Blut und Boden”. It took decades for Friedrich’s reputation to recover from this association with Nazism. Much later, the writings of critics and scholars placed his art in a purely historical context. By the 1970s, his works had begun to be exhibited again in major international galleries and found favor with a new generation of art critics and historians. Today, his reputation is established internationally. He is a national icon in his native Germany, and is considered a figure of great psychological complexity.

Caspar David Friedrich was born in Greifswald in 1774. He was the sixth child of a family of soap makers and candle makers. Only five of the nine siblings managed to reach adulthood. Half his family succumbed to typhus and he fell into a frozen lake. His brother died trying to save him.

He began his formal studies in art in 1790 at the University of Greifswald in his hometown, where the art department today bears his name. Following his teacher on outdoor painting trips, he was encouraged to sketch naturally at a young age. He was then influenced by the theologian Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten, who taught him that nature was a revelation of God. During this period he also studied literature and aesthetics with the Swedish professor Thomas Thorild. Four years later Friedrich entered the famous Copenhagen Academy, where he began his training by making cast copies of sculptures. He studied Dutch landscapes and apprenticed with artists inspired by the ‘Sturm und Drang’ movement, living between the dramatic intensity and expressiveness of the nascent Romantic aesthetic and the waning Neoclassical ideal.

Friedrich settled permanently in Dresden in 1798. During this early period, he experimented with etchings and designs for woodcuts, and with the exception of a few early pieces, such as ‘Landscape with Temple in Ruins’ (1797), did not work extensively in oils until his reputation is established.

He preferred landscapes inspired by trips to the Baltic coast, Bohemia, the Krkonoše and the Harz mountains. He made pencil studies in situ and from memory depicted light and visual phenomena, which no one had ever painted with such emphasis.

His reputation as an artist was established when he won a prize in 1805 in the Weimar competition organized by Goethe, but he completed the first of his major paintings in 1808, aged 34. This religious work depicting a cross on top of a mountain received a cold reception. The art critic Basilius von Ramdohr published a long article questioning Friedrich’s use of the landscape in a religious context.

Friedrich was elected a member of the Berlin Academy in 1810, but failed to get a professorship because, according to the German Information Library, “his painting was considered too personal, his point of view too individual, to serve as a fruitful example to students ». Politics may also have played a role in stalling his career: Friedrich’s distinctly German themes and costumes often clashed with the prevailing pro-French attitudes of the time.

His reputation steadily declined over the last fifteen years of his life. As the ideals of early Romanticism fell out of fashion, he was considered an eccentric and brooding character, out of touch with his time.

Until 1820, he lived as a hermit and was described by friends as “the loneliest of loners”. Towards the end of his life he lived in relative poverty. He became isolated and spent long periods of the day and night walking alone through forests and fields, often starting his walks before sunrise.

He suffered his first stroke in June 1835, which left him slightly paralyzed in his limbs and unable to paint. From this period they appeared in the work of symbols of death. Until 1838, he was able to work only on a small scale. He and his family lived in poverty and increasingly depended for support on the charity of friends. He died on May 7, 1840.

Along with other Romantic painters, Friedrich helped establish landscape painting as a major genre in Western art. His allegorical landscapes, which usually feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mist, withered trees or Gothic ruins, influenced many later painters. He is generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. With a primary interest in the contemplation of nature, his often symbolic and anti-classical work seeks to convey a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. Friedrich’s paintings direct the viewer’s gaze towards the metaphysical dimension of the landscapes. He was a prolific artist and more than 500 works are attributed to him. In keeping with the romantic ideals of his time, he intended his paintings to function as pure aesthetic statements, so he was careful that the titles he gave were not overly descriptive or evocative. It is possible that some of today’s more literal work titles were not given by the artist himself, but were adopted during one of the revivals of interest in his work. While he kept a detailed notebook of his production, he does not sign or date his works.

Caspar David Friedrich. Unendliche Landschaften | Exhibition trailer