retrospective
after the successful display of this exhibition at the
folkwang museum in essen, the kunsthalle in hamburg
presents the first major retrospective of caspar david
friedrich (1774-1840).
this show intends to foster a heightened awareness
of the precision and structuring of friedrich's works as
well as the deliberate calculation of their impact.
a sensationally large number of masterpieces are on
display - about 70 oil paintings from more than 50
museums and private collections.
the exhibition is arranged according to 7 themes :
back figures, self portraits, nature studies, landscapes,
pairs and series, ...

romanticism
friedrich painted nordic images with apocalyptic
dimension, his landscapes rarely depict daylight or
sunlight; rather, they portray dawn, dusk, fog, or mist -
phenomena that invite mystery.

the romantic style is such a complex phenomenon,
and the usage of the term 'romanticism' was initially
a protest against the soulless intellectualism of the
eighteenth century. one striking feature of the romantics
was their interest in the visual arts. they saw
visual communication at a deeper and more primal
level than words, which they associated with logic.

highly controversial interpretations
the meaning of these pictures have long been disputed,
and the meditative basis of friedrich's work has led to
interpreting it as 'programmatic' and 'symbolic'.
some art critics concern is that the pictures contain
specific christian messages, with virtually every
detail symbolizing aspects of the protestant doctrines,
faith in which the artist was reared.

other interpretations - equally improbably- have seen
friedrich as demonstrating the ideas of the leading
german philosophers.

the image of germany as a politically weak but
intellectually strong nation was the dominant one
at that time. some others see in friedrich's pictures the
'germanic mood' as a reaction to the french military
invasion (by napoleon in 1806).
a sense of a german identity, which grew from the
great intellectual and cultural renaissance of the
later eighteenth century.

friedrich was far more than a mere illustrator of ideas.
he himself protested that he was not what he called
a 'writing painter' and suggested that those who were
would do better to pen texts and pin them on the wall
rather than go to the trouble of painting pictures.

art and mysticism
in the later eighteenth century there had been a
growing disillusionment of an over-materialistic
society, and a new call for the spiritual.
a new evaluation of the natural world was taking
place throughout europe and in germany there was
a general enthusiasm for nature. this tendency,
central to romanticism, encouraged the view of
nature as a paradigm.
most probably friedrich's aim was to convey the
spiritual experience of life. he was convinced that
the contemplation of nature can lead us to understand
the deeper meaning of things as he understood that
what you see 'outside' is influenced by what is
'inside' you.
explorations over the past half-century have
established friedrich as a figure of great psychological
complexity, a believer who struggled with doubt,
a celebrator of beauty haunted by darkness.
in the end he trascends interpretation.

no thematic titles
romanticism seems to be primarily ideological and
literary in its analysis, but friedrich takes a more
painterly approach. he came from a craftsman
background in the baltic harbour town of greifswald
in pomerania, where his father was a prosperous
candle-maker and soap boiler.
his concern that his pictures should function visually
is a pratical one and encouraged a reticence in verbal
descriptions. he did not, on the whole, provide
thematic titles for his works. evocative names
such 'the stages of life' are later inventions -
frequently from the twentieth century.
it is reported that, when first exhibited, it was
simply designated by the artist, as 'landscape'.

influence
playwright samuel becket confessed a predilection
for caspar david’s pictures, friedrich’s imagery
was used by many hollywood directors for
eerie effects in thrillers and fantasy films.
meanwhile he became accepted as one of the
stimulating ‘old masters’, international artists
discovered friedrich’s influence on modern
and contemporary art.

edvard munch (1863 - 1944)
edward hopper (1882 - 1967)
joseph beuys (1921 - 1986)
rené magritte (1898 - 1967)
david hockney (1937)
sam taylor wood (1967)
...
they all took a serious interest and had a ‘memory bank’
of friedrich’s images that worked in their way,
subconsciously or conscously.


see more work
by caspar david friedrich

---

figures seen from the back
contemplative landscapes on the
theme of spectatorship.

in the history of painting, the back figure has a
long tradition. but only with friedrich did it obtain
such a prominent position. motionless these lonely
people stand and watch the spectacle of nature,
without taking part...


---

windows
many of the pictorial motives have symbolic meaning.
among friedrich’s motives are windows,
and they tell us about limitation in our perception of
reality.


--
book
unfortunately the exhibition catalog is available in
german language only.
that’s why we suggest our international readers
the book:

‘friedrich’ by william vaughan,
publisher: phaidon press, london 2004
ISBN: 0714840602
https://www.phaidon.com

(the text on these pages has been partially edited
with texts from vaughan’s essay.)

in this captivating book, the author discusses all
aspects of the artist’s life and career, from his
childhood to his adulthood in dresden,
where he achieved such fame that his paintings
were bought by the prussian royal family and
the russian tsar.
friedrich’s radical political sympathies, however,
were to affect his reputation and, as the author
reveals, it was only in the late twentieth century
that the enigmatic quality of his paintings began
to be fully valued and he gained truly international
recognition.
in recent years paintings by friedrich have been
added to international collections such as the
musée du louvre in paris, the national gallery in london,
and the j. paul getty museum in los angeles.