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| c1810-20 Caspar David Friedrich by Gerhard von Kügelgen |
Biographical information from Wikipedia:
Caspar David Friedrich (1774 – 1840)
was born in 1774, in Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania on the Baltic coast of
Germany. The sixth of ten children, he was brought up in the strict Lutheran
creed of his father Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich, a candle-maker and soap boiler.
Caspar David was familiar with
death from an early age. His mother, Sophie Dorothea Bechly, died in 1781 when
he was just seven. A year later, his sister Elisabeth died, while
a second sister, Maria, succumbed to typhus in 1791. Arguably the
greatest tragedy of his childhood was the 1787 death of his brother Johann
Christoffer: at the age of thirteen, Caspar David witnessed his younger brother
fall through the ice of a frozen lake and drown. Some accounts
suggest that Johann Christoffer perished while trying to rescue Caspar David,
who was also in danger on the ice.
Friedrich began his formal study of art
in 1790 as a private student of artist Johann Gottfried Quistorp at the University
of Greifswald. Quistorp took his students on outdoor drawing excursions; as a
result, Friedrich was encouraged to sketch from life at an early age. Through
Quistorp, Friedrich met and was subsequently influenced by the theologian Ludwig
Gotthard Kosegarten, who taught that nature was a revelation of God. Quistorp
introduced Friedrich to the work of the German 17th-century artist Adam
Elsheimer, whose works often included religious subjects dominated by
landscape, and nocturnal subjects.
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| Adam Elsheimer "Flight into Egypt 1609 oil on copper 31 x 42 cm |
Four years later Friedrich entered the
prestigious Academy of Copenhagen, where he began his education by making
copies of casts from antique sculptures before proceeding to drawing from life.
Living in Copenhagen afforded the young painter access to the Royal Picture
Gallery’s collection of 17th-century Dutch landscape painting. At the Academy
he studied under teachers such as Christian August Lorentzen and the landscape
painter Jens Juel. These artists were inspired by the Sturm und Drang movement
and represented a midpoint between the dramatic intensity and expressive manner
of the budding Romantic aesthetic and the waning neo-classical ideal. Mood was
paramount, and influence was drawn from such sources as the Icelandic legend of
Edda, the poems of Ossian and Norse mythology.
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| Christian August Lorentzen "Silke Saugen" oil on canvas 44.5 x 58.5 cm |
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| Jens Juel "Shore at Vedbaek" |
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| 1807 The Cross in the Mountains oil on canvas 115 x 110.5 cm |
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| 1811 Friedrich's Studio by Georg Friedrich Kersting oil on canvas 54 x 42 cm |
Friedrich's reputation steadily
declined over the final fifteen years of his life. As the ideals of early
Romanticism passed from fashion, he came to be viewed as an eccentric and
melancholy character, out of touch with the times. Gradually his patrons fell
away. By 1820, he was living as a recluse and was described by
friends as the "most solitary of the solitary". Towards
the end of his life he lived in relative poverty and was increasingly dependent
on the charity of friends.
In 1835, Friedrich suffered his first stroke,
which left him with minor limb paralysis and greatly reduced his ability to
paint. As a result he was unable to work in oil; instead he was
limited to watercolour, sepia and reworking older compositions. Although his
vision remained strong, he had lost the full strength of his hand. Yet he was
able to produce a final 'black painting', Seashore by Moonlight,
described by Vaughan as the "darkest of all his shorelines, in which
richness of tonality compensates for the lack of his former finesse".
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| 1835-36 Seashore by Moonlight oil on canvas 73 x 58 cm. |
This is part 1 of a 2-part post on the works of Caspar David Friedrich:
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| 1797 Temple with Landscape Ruin oil on canvas |
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| c1797 Landscape with Pavilion pen, ink, watercolour 16.7 x 21.7 cm |
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| 1798 Wreck in the Arctic Ocean oil on canvas 31.4 x 23.6 cm |
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| 1801 The Woman with the Raven at the Abyss woodcut 16.9 x 11.9 cm |
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| 1802 Study of Heads, Figures and Foliage 20 x 13.2 cm |
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| 1803 Woman with Spider's Web Between Bare Trees woodcut 17 x 12 cm ( image ) |
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| 1803-04 Young Man Lying on a Grave woodcut 7.8 x 11.3 cm ( image ) |
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| 1804 Statue of the Madonna in the Mountains graphite and wash 24.4 x 38.2 cm |
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| 1805-06 View from the Artist's Studio pencil and sepia wash 31.4 x 23.5 cm |
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| 1805-06 View of Arkona with Rising Moon and Nets oil on canvas |
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| 1806 Cross in the Mountains |
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| 1806 The Ruins of Eldena watercolour |
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| 1806-09 Self-Portrait black chalk 22.6 x 18 cm |
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| 1807 Dolmen by the Sea pencil and sepia 64.5 x 95 cm |
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| 1807 Fog oil on canvas 34.5 x 52 cm |
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| 1807 Sea Beach with Fisherman oil on canvas 34.5 x 51 cm |
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| 1807 Summer ( Landscape with Couple ) oil on canvas 71.4 x 103.6 cm |
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| c1807 Dolmen in Snow oil on canvas 62 x 80 cm |
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| 1808 Bohemian Landscape with Mount Milleschauer oil on canvas 70 x 104 cm |
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| 1808 Morning Fog in the Mountains oil on canvas 27.9 x 104 cm |
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| 1809 Bare Oak Tree pencil 36 x 25.9 cm |
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| 1809 Monk by the Sea oil on canvas 110 x 172 cm |
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| 1810 Landscape in the Riessengebirge oil on canvas 45 x 58.3 cm |
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| 1810 Mountain Landscape with Rainbow oil on canvas 70 x 102 cm |
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| 1810 Rocks and Trees pencil and watercolour 36 x 26 cm |
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| 1810 The Abbey in the Oakwood oil on canvas 110 x 171 cm |
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| c1810-11 Window Looking over the Park pencil and sepia wash 39.8 x 30.5 cm |
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| c1810 Landscape with Rainbow oil on canvas 59 x 84.5 cm |
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| 1811 Port by Moonlight |
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| 1811 Rock Surface |
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| 1811 Winter Landscape oil on canvas 32.5 x 45 cm |
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| 1811-12 The Garden Terrace oil on canvas 53.5 x 70 cm |
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| c1811 Winter Landscape with Church oil on canvas 33 x 45 cm |
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| 1812 Cross and Cathedral in the Mountains oil on canvas 44.5 x 37.4 cm |
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| 1812 Lime Tree Branch pencil and wash 12.8 x 18 cm |
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| 1812 Old Heroes' Graves oil on canvas 49.5 x 70.5 cm |
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| 1813 Fallen Rocks pencil and watercolour 21 x 17.4 cm |
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| 1813-14 Vision of the Christian Church oil on canvas 66.5 x 51.5 cm |
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| 1814 The Chasseur in the Forest oil on canvas 66 x 47 cm |
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| 1815 Sailing Ship oil on canvas 71 x 49.5 cm |
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| 1815 Ships at Anchor oil on canvas 21 x 30 cm |
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| 1815 The Cross Beside The Baltic oil on canvas 45 x 33.5 cm |
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| 1815-16 Ships in the Harbour at Greifswald oil on canvas 90 x 71 cm |
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| c1816-17 Neubrandenburg oil on canvas 91 x 72 cm |
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| 1817 Altar Design pencil, ink and watercolour 54.8 x 43.7 cm |
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| 1817 City at Moonrise oil on canvas |
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| 1817 Greifswald in Moonlight oil on canvas 22.5 x 30.5 cm |
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| 1817 Picture in Remembrance of Johann Emanuel Bermer oil on canvas 43.5 x 57 cm |
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| 1817 The Cross in front of a Rainbow in the Mountains ink and watercolour 27.2 x 20.8 cm |
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| 1817 Two Men by the Sea oil on canvas 51 x 66 cm |
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| c1817-18 Chalk Cliffs on Rügen oil on canvas 90.5 x 71 cm |
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| 1818 Gazebo in Greifswald |
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| 1818 Sailing Boat pencil 33.1 x 24.7 cm |
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| 1818 Study for "On the Sailing Boat" pencil and wash 36 x 26 cm |
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| 1818 The Cathedral oil on canvas 152.5 x 70.5 cm |
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| 1818 The Marketplace in Greifswald watercolour |
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| 1818 The Wanderer above the Sea Fog oil on canvas 98 x 74 cm |
