Caspar David Friedrich was born September 5, 1774, died May 7, 1840. He had been a landscape painter from the nineteenth-century German Romantic period, and he is today thought the most significant painter from the era. A painter as well as draughtsman, Friedrich is most famous for his later representative landscapes that feature reflective figures silhouetted against nighttime skies, daybreak mists, bare trees as well as Gothic ruins. His chief interest as an painter had been the reflection of nature and his frequently symbolic as well as anti-classical art attempts to express a spiritual experiences from life.
Friedrich was born in Greifswald, northern Germany during 1774. He was trained in Copenhagen up to 1798 prior to settling down in Dresden. Friedrich grew up in an age that, throughout Europe, a developing disenchantment with an over materialistic culture had resulted in a fresh admiration for individual spiritualism. Such a spiritualism was frequently depicted, by a reevaluation of the naturalistic world, in the works of such painters like Friedrich, J. M. W. Turner as well as John Constable. These artists attempted to portray nature as a divine creation.
Friedrich was born in Greifswald, northern Germany during 1774. He was trained in Copenhagen up to 1798 prior to settling down in Dresden. Friedrich grew up in an age that, throughout Europe, a developing disenchantment with an over materialistic culture had resulted in a fresh admiration for individual spiritualism. Such a spiritualism was frequently depicted, by a reevaluation of the naturalistic world, in the works of such painters like Friedrich, J. M. W. Turner as well as John Constable. These artists attempted to portray nature as a divine creation.
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Biography
Even though Friedrich had been famous in his life, his art dropped from favor over the second half of the 19th century. While Germany proceeded with the goal of modernization, a growing urgency was seen in new art being produced, and so Friedrich's reflective pictures of hush had been viewed as the products of a past era. His rediscovery started during 1906 as an exhibition of thirty-two of his art works as well as a collection of his sculptures had been conducted in Berlin. In the 1920's his art was treasured by the Expressionists, as well as during the 1930's and 1940's, the Surrealists as Existentialists regularly drew inspiration from Friedrich's art. Presently he is viewed as an icon of the German Romantic period, and an painter of worldwide significance.Caspar David Friedrich had been born the 6th of 10 children in he town of Hither Pomerania, a town in Northern Germany which at the time was a part of Sweden. He was raised by the stern Lutheran creed of his father Adolf Gottlieb, a flourishing candle and soap maker. Friedrich knew death early in his life: his mother, Sophie Dorothea Bechly, passed away during 1781 while Caspar David was but seven. By the time he was 13, Caspar David saw firsthand as his brother, Johann Christoffer, broke through the ice of a frozen lake and drown. A few reports indicate that Johann Christoffer had died while he attempted to rescue Caspar David, who had been likewise in peril on the ice. Friedrich's sister Elisabeth passed away during 1782, when a second sister, Maria, was to die of typhus during 1791.
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Wanderer above the Sea of Fog - Caspar David Friedrich
A few of Friedrich's generation have ascribed the sadness in his painting to those childhood losses, however it is as probable that Friedrich's personality had been by nature melancholy. When an adult, the pallid and reclusive Friedrich strengthened the fashionable view of him being of the "taciturn man from the North". His letters, all the same, constantly bore witticism and self-irony.
During 1790, Friedrich took painting lessons with Johann Gottfried Quistorp in the University of Greifswald, as well as literature and aesthetics under Swedish professor Thomas Thorild. Thorild had been involved with the modern English aesthetic, and instructed Friedrich to differentiate from the spiritual 'inner eye' with the less auspicious physical 'outer eye'. Friedrich then enrolled in the esteemed Academy of Copenhagen during 1794 where he learned under instructors like Christian August Lorentzen as well as landscape artist Jens Juel. Such painters had been shaped by the Sturm und Drang period, and typified a blend between the dramatic vividness and expressive style of the developing Romantic aesthetic movement as well as the by that time waning neo-classical manner. A theme's mood had been predominant factor, and inspiration had been taken from such origins as the Icelandic myth of Edda and Ossian, as well as Nordic folklore. A gifted pupil, Friedrich started his education with the academy by creating replicas of casts of antique sculptures, and then moving forward to sketching out of life. He had been keenly fascinated with seventeenth-century Dutch landscape art which he had been allowed to have access to view at Copenhagen's Royal Picture Gallery.
During 1798 Friedrich relocated for good in Dresden. He frequently sketched works, primarily naturalistic and topographic, in India ink, watercolor and also sepia ink. It is unknown when he eventually began to take up painting in oils, however it was credibly after he was 30. Landscapes had been his favored theme, these being inspired by his regular travels from 1801forward, to the Riesen Mountains, Baltic seashore, Bohemia, as well as the Harz Mountains. Primarily inspired by the landscapes of northern Germany, his pictures portray forest, hills, harbors, dawn mists as well as additional light effects established on his close reflection of nature. His paintings of this era were created from his drawings and studies of beautiful places, such as cliffs at Rugen, and the surround of Dresden or Elbe. The sketches themselves had been created nearly entirely in pencil, and furnished topographic information with the elusive atmospheric effects distinguishing of Friedrich's more mature art generated from memory. Such effects would, in time, occupy Friedrich as a primary focus. He grew increasingly interested in the portrayal of illumination, of the light of sun or moon on clouds or water, visual phenomena which were particular to the Baltic sea shore and which had not previously been painted.
Friedrich's first outstanding work was produced when the artist had been thirty-four. The Cross in the Mountains, at present also called The Tetschen Altar, had been an altarpiece panel presented during 1808. The painting was met with some debate however this named it as Friedrich's initial piece to gain extended appraisal; the painting presented, for the first time in Christian painting, a pure landscape as an altarpiece. It portrays the crucified Christ in profile at the summit of a mountain, unattended, encircled with only nature. The cross ascends highest in the piece, however is secondary, being regarded obliquely as well as at a distance. The mountain represents an immobile faith, as the fir trees stand for hope. The painter and critic Basilius von Ramdohr published a lengthy article rejecting Friedrich's application of landscape in this a circumstance; he published that it would have been "a veritable presumption, if landscape painting were to sneak into the church and creep onto the altar". Rahmdohr had been basically questioning if a utter landscape piece might carry a definitive significance.
Friedrich's colleagues publicly supported him, and the painter published a program offering his version of the painting. During his 1809 comment about the piece, Friedrich likened the beams of the evening sun to the brightness of the Holy Father. Where the sun is dipping indicates that the era as God displays himself straight to man is gone. Friedrich's lengthened interpreting of his own art was the first and final interpretation of his art that he would give.
1805 brought Friedrich his first recognition as a painter with an award at a Weimar competition. During 1810, Friedrich had been appointed a member of the Berlin Academy following the purchase of two of his art works by the Prussian Crown Prince. Six years afterward he was appointed a member of the Dresden Academy, an office which bore an yearly stipend of one hundred fifty thalers.
On January 211818, Friedrich, at that time forty-four, wed Caroline Bommer. Bommer had been 25 and the daughter of a dyer of Dresden. She was a mild, modest woman. They bore three children, their first, Emma, was born in 1820. Carus marked that matrimony did not alter Friedrich's life or personality, however his painting of this era bear different levity. Female figures appear in his work, his palette is lighter and the commanding balance and austerity are diminished. Chalk Cliffs on Rugen, created following his honeymoon, is an illustration of this maturation.
The painter received backing from two sources in Russia. The Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich called in at Friedrich's studio during 1820, and after the visit, went back to Saint Petersburg accompanied by art works of Friedrich's for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. The poet Vasily Zhukovsky, private instructor of successor to the throne Alexander II, discovered the artist during 1821 and decided that Friedrich was a kindred spirit. Zhukovsky assisted Friedrich by buying his art and advocating his painting to the royal family for several years after that, particularly at the final stage of Friedrich's artistic career, by which time the artist had been in financial trouble.
Friedrich had been familiar with Philipp Otto Runge, a primary German artist of the Romantic era, and won the esteem from the poet Goethe. He had been likewise a companion of Georg Friedrich Kersting, who painted him busy in his undecorated studio, and the Norwegian artist Johann Christian Dahl. Dahl and Friedrich grew to be close friends over the Friedrich's final years, and complained that the to art buying public, Friedrich's visions were merely "curiosities". Although the poet Zhukovsky valued Friedrich's spiritual topics, Dahl appreciated the synchronous tone of Friedrich's landscape painting.
During June 1835, Friedrich sustained a stroke resulting in some limb paralysis. He selected a rest remedy at Teplitz, but his capacity to paint was heavily weakened. He worked exclusively in watercolor as well as sepia, and symbols of death showed up greatly in his art, like a sepia with an over sized owl alighted upon a tomb in front of a full moon. With 1838, he was all but unable to create any artistic work, dwelt in impoverishment, and was progressively depending on the charity of friends. His art was by then regarded as anachronistic, and his passing away in May 1840 created little stir in the art world.
During 1790, Friedrich took painting lessons with Johann Gottfried Quistorp in the University of Greifswald, as well as literature and aesthetics under Swedish professor Thomas Thorild. Thorild had been involved with the modern English aesthetic, and instructed Friedrich to differentiate from the spiritual 'inner eye' with the less auspicious physical 'outer eye'. Friedrich then enrolled in the esteemed Academy of Copenhagen during 1794 where he learned under instructors like Christian August Lorentzen as well as landscape artist Jens Juel. Such painters had been shaped by the Sturm und Drang period, and typified a blend between the dramatic vividness and expressive style of the developing Romantic aesthetic movement as well as the by that time waning neo-classical manner. A theme's mood had been predominant factor, and inspiration had been taken from such origins as the Icelandic myth of Edda and Ossian, as well as Nordic folklore. A gifted pupil, Friedrich started his education with the academy by creating replicas of casts of antique sculptures, and then moving forward to sketching out of life. He had been keenly fascinated with seventeenth-century Dutch landscape art which he had been allowed to have access to view at Copenhagen's Royal Picture Gallery.
During 1798 Friedrich relocated for good in Dresden. He frequently sketched works, primarily naturalistic and topographic, in India ink, watercolor and also sepia ink. It is unknown when he eventually began to take up painting in oils, however it was credibly after he was 30. Landscapes had been his favored theme, these being inspired by his regular travels from 1801forward, to the Riesen Mountains, Baltic seashore, Bohemia, as well as the Harz Mountains. Primarily inspired by the landscapes of northern Germany, his pictures portray forest, hills, harbors, dawn mists as well as additional light effects established on his close reflection of nature. His paintings of this era were created from his drawings and studies of beautiful places, such as cliffs at Rugen, and the surround of Dresden or Elbe. The sketches themselves had been created nearly entirely in pencil, and furnished topographic information with the elusive atmospheric effects distinguishing of Friedrich's more mature art generated from memory. Such effects would, in time, occupy Friedrich as a primary focus. He grew increasingly interested in the portrayal of illumination, of the light of sun or moon on clouds or water, visual phenomena which were particular to the Baltic sea shore and which had not previously been painted.
Friedrich's first outstanding work was produced when the artist had been thirty-four. The Cross in the Mountains, at present also called The Tetschen Altar, had been an altarpiece panel presented during 1808. The painting was met with some debate however this named it as Friedrich's initial piece to gain extended appraisal; the painting presented, for the first time in Christian painting, a pure landscape as an altarpiece. It portrays the crucified Christ in profile at the summit of a mountain, unattended, encircled with only nature. The cross ascends highest in the piece, however is secondary, being regarded obliquely as well as at a distance. The mountain represents an immobile faith, as the fir trees stand for hope. The painter and critic Basilius von Ramdohr published a lengthy article rejecting Friedrich's application of landscape in this a circumstance; he published that it would have been "a veritable presumption, if landscape painting were to sneak into the church and creep onto the altar". Rahmdohr had been basically questioning if a utter landscape piece might carry a definitive significance.
Friedrich's colleagues publicly supported him, and the painter published a program offering his version of the painting. During his 1809 comment about the piece, Friedrich likened the beams of the evening sun to the brightness of the Holy Father. Where the sun is dipping indicates that the era as God displays himself straight to man is gone. Friedrich's lengthened interpreting of his own art was the first and final interpretation of his art that he would give.
1805 brought Friedrich his first recognition as a painter with an award at a Weimar competition. During 1810, Friedrich had been appointed a member of the Berlin Academy following the purchase of two of his art works by the Prussian Crown Prince. Six years afterward he was appointed a member of the Dresden Academy, an office which bore an yearly stipend of one hundred fifty thalers.
On January 211818, Friedrich, at that time forty-four, wed Caroline Bommer. Bommer had been 25 and the daughter of a dyer of Dresden. She was a mild, modest woman. They bore three children, their first, Emma, was born in 1820. Carus marked that matrimony did not alter Friedrich's life or personality, however his painting of this era bear different levity. Female figures appear in his work, his palette is lighter and the commanding balance and austerity are diminished. Chalk Cliffs on Rugen, created following his honeymoon, is an illustration of this maturation.
The painter received backing from two sources in Russia. The Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich called in at Friedrich's studio during 1820, and after the visit, went back to Saint Petersburg accompanied by art works of Friedrich's for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. The poet Vasily Zhukovsky, private instructor of successor to the throne Alexander II, discovered the artist during 1821 and decided that Friedrich was a kindred spirit. Zhukovsky assisted Friedrich by buying his art and advocating his painting to the royal family for several years after that, particularly at the final stage of Friedrich's artistic career, by which time the artist had been in financial trouble.
Friedrich had been familiar with Philipp Otto Runge, a primary German artist of the Romantic era, and won the esteem from the poet Goethe. He had been likewise a companion of Georg Friedrich Kersting, who painted him busy in his undecorated studio, and the Norwegian artist Johann Christian Dahl. Dahl and Friedrich grew to be close friends over the Friedrich's final years, and complained that the to art buying public, Friedrich's visions were merely "curiosities". Although the poet Zhukovsky valued Friedrich's spiritual topics, Dahl appreciated the synchronous tone of Friedrich's landscape painting.
During June 1835, Friedrich sustained a stroke resulting in some limb paralysis. He selected a rest remedy at Teplitz, but his capacity to paint was heavily weakened. He worked exclusively in watercolor as well as sepia, and symbols of death showed up greatly in his art, like a sepia with an over sized owl alighted upon a tomb in front of a full moon. With 1838, he was all but unable to create any artistic work, dwelt in impoverishment, and was progressively depending on the charity of friends. His art was by then regarded as anachronistic, and his passing away in May 1840 created little stir in the art world.
Cemetery at Dusk - Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich Selected Paintings
A Walk of DuskAbbey in the Oakwood
Caroline auf der Treppe
Caroline on the Stair
Cross on the Baltic Sea
Drifting Clouds
Easter Monday
Evening: Sunset behind Dresden's Hofkirche 1824
Fisherboot zwischen Findlingen am Osteestrand
Küstenlandschaft im Mondschein Coastal Scene by Moonlight
Landschaft mit Strohgedeckten Hütten in einem Wald c.1798
Midday
Nordic Landscape, Spring c.1825
On the Sailing Boat
Paysage d'hiver avec Eglise
Periods of Life
Riesengebirge
Sea of Ice
Spaziergang in der Abenddämmerung c.1835
Sunset
Tannenwald mit Wasserfall c.1828
The Cross on the Mountain
The Dreamer
The Wanderer
Tree with Crows
Two Men Contemplating the Moon
Winter Landscape
Woman at the Window
Zwei Männer in Betrachtung des Mondes c.1830
View from the Painters Studio - Caspar David Friedrich
The Cross in the Mountains - Caspar David Friedrich
Snow - Caspar David Friedrich
On Board a Sailing Ship - Caspar David Friedrich
Chalk Cliffs on Rugen - Caspar David Friedrich
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