Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich was a German Romantic painter who lived from 1774 to 1840. He was one of the first artists to use the sublime style of landscape painting. Through the sublime, he explored spirituality and a wonder of nature in a whole new way. He was one of the two most prominent German artists of the nineteenth century, in the company of the great Adolph von Menzel.
Friedrich was born into a strict Lutheran family in Greifswald, Germany, along the Baltic coast. He endured many tragedies as a youth, witnessing the death of his mother, two sisters, and a brother. At 16 years of age, Friedrich started his art education as a student of the artist, Johann Gottfried Quistorp. Quistorp encouraged his students to draw outdoors from life. Friedrich continued his education at the Academy of Copenhagen where he was first exposed to the new Romantic art movement spreading through the art world. His early works were mostly done in ink and watercolor.
Caspar David Friedrich began to achieve critical acclaim as an artist when he was in his 30s. During this period, he switched to oil paints and took long trips, usually within northern Germany, to find inspiration for his work. He preferred landscapes to all else. Sometimes Friedrich would insert a lone figure into his landscapes, often interpreted as a self-portrait.
In 1805, when Friedrich was 31 years old, he won his first major art award at the Weimar competition. His produced his first major work, “The Tetschen Altar”, in 1808 when he was 34 years old. This was the first pure landscape to be included in an altar panel for a church and caused quite a stir for the unconventionality of it. By 1810, Friedrich’s career was solidified. Two of his works were purchased by the Prussian crown and he was elected to be a member of the prestigious Berlin Academy of Art.
In 1818, Friedrich married Caroline Bommer. It was a happy union, and the couple went on to have three children. From this point forward, Friedrich would sometimes depict female figures or couples in his work. A far cry from the lonesome solitary figures in his work that he was known for. Though Friedrich was very successful during his lifetime, commissioned even by the Russian royal family, Romanticism in art fell out of favor towards the end of his life. Often, his art was misunderstood by the critics. Friedrich had his own convictions when painting, and refused to sway from what he was trying to convey. Even his masterpiece, “The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog”, was mostly underappreciated in his lifetime.
In 1835, Friedrich suffered a stroke. The resulting paralysis of his limbs affected his art output. His works from this period were dark in mood, painted in a sepia toned palette, and often included the death symbolism and imagery. By 1838 he could no longer paint. He fell into poverty and his art, now seen as outdated, no longer held the status it once did. Caspar David Friedrich died in 1840 at 65 years old.
For some time, Friedrich’s works were underappreciated. Fortunately, they were rediscovered by the Symbolism and Surrealism artists, including Edvard Munch and Max Ernst, in the late 19th century, who used his pieces and allegorical ideas for inspiration.
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