Caspar David Friedrich (Parents: Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich and Sophie Dorothea Bechly; Spouse: Christiane Caroline Bommer; Children: Emma, Agnes Adelheid, and Gustav Adolf)
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) is widely considered the most important German artist of his generation and the quintessential painter of the Romantic movement. His work transformed landscape painting from a mere backdrop into a profound vehicle for spiritual and emotional expression.
Born in Greifswald near the Baltic Sea, Friedrich’s childhood was marked by tragedy. His mother died when he was seven, and at age thirteen, he witnessed his brother Johann Christoffer drown while trying to save him from a frozen lake. These early confrontations with death and the sublime power of nature deeply influenced his melancholic and introspective artistic vision.
Friedrich studied at the Academy in Copenhagen before settling in Dresden in 1798, where he joined a circle of Romantic poets and thinkers. He broke with the classical traditions of landscape painting, focusing instead on “Stimmung” (mood) and the sublime. His breakthrough came in 1808 with The Cross in the Mountains (Tetschen Altar), a controversial work that depicted a landscape as an altarpiece, elevating nature to a religious status.
He is most famous for his use of the “Rückenfigur”—a person seen from behind, contemplating the view. This device, seen in masterpieces like Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) , invites the viewer to share the subject’s gaze and experience the vastness of nature. Other iconic works, such as The Monk by the Sea and The Abbey in the Oakwood, explore themes of loneliness, transience, and the insignificance of man against the infinite.
Despite early success and royal patronage, Friedrich’s uncompromising style fell out of fashion as realism gained popularity. He died in obscurity in 1840, and his work was largely forgotten until it was rediscovered by Symbolist artists in the late 19th century and later championed by Surrealists in the 1920s. Today, he is recognized as an icon of psychological landscape art.
Active in others filds : Monument Design, Altar Design, Etching/Printmaking.
