Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)
Germany

Caspar David was the sixth child of a soapworks and chandler's shop owner in Greifswald. The most memorable event of Casper David's life is the death of his brother, who drowned during a boating accident while trying to rescue another brother who had fallen into the water. This memory deeply affected Caspar and explains much of the brooding and melancholy in his works. Caspar was educated in drawing at the University of Greifswald by Johann Gottfried Quistorp. In 1794, Friedrich traveled to Copenhagen to receive four years training at the academy there. Afterwards he moved to Dresden, a city that other prominent Romantic artists would flock to in later years. Friedrich preferred to paint landscapes, landscapes of his native country Germany especially. In Greifswald, Friedrich met Phillip Otto Runge, who first initiated the school of symbolic landscape that Friedrich would later follow and excel in. In 1805, Friedrich participated in a contest hosted by Weimar Friends of Art (Goethe and Heinrich Meyer). Runge lost. Friedrich received half the prize money and a citation. Goethe was fascinated by Friedrich and admired his landscapes. At first Friedrich's paintings were subtle; he started with sepia, watercolors, and topographical paintings until 1808, when he began using oils. But even then, the color in his paintings were muted. The light of the sky greatly contrasted the shadows of the people he painted. He rarely painted people in his pictures and when he did, it was only to accentuate the vastness of nature and the sublime, and most often the people's backs were turned. As his painting progressed, themes became more melancholy. His famous paintings of churches, monastaries, and cemetaries evoked dread and devastation. Three paintings of barren, leafless oak trees in snow expressed a great contrast between light and dark and Friedrich's own isolation and temperament. In 1816, Friedrich joined the Dresden academy and lectured there in 1824. In 1818, Friedrich married Christiane Caroline Bloomer, who was as quiet and as simple as he. His last painting was done in 1834, The Lonely Cemetery Gate in Winter. In 1835, suffered a stroke and paralysis set in. He slowly lapsed into insanity and died in 1840, unknown and stricken with poverty.

Works

Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818). Oil on canvas, 90.5 x 71 cm. Oskar Reinhart Foundation, Winterthur, Germany
Wanderer Looking over the Sea of Fog (1818). Oil on canvas, 95.8 x 74.8 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Village Landscape in Morning Light (1822). Oil on canvas; 55 x 71 cm.
The Moon Rising over the Sea (1823). Oil on canvas.
The Polar Sea (1823-24). Oil on canvas, 96.7 x 126.9 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany