In 1774 Casper David Friedrich was born in Greifswald, Northern Germany. Until 1798, Friedrich spent the first portion of his life studying art and literature/ aesthetics in Copenhagen with Johann Gottfried Quistorp and Thomas Thorild at the University of Greifswald. Before drawing from life, his education at the institute started by making copies of casts from antique sculptures. Until his triumph in the 1805 Weimar visual arts competition, Friedrich wasn’t recognized as an artist. 

His life and personality didn’t change once he was married to Caroline Bommer in 1818, however, it did modify his artwork. The female figure emerged in his work, and his overall colour palette became brighter, and his controlling symmetry and seriousness are reduced. Illustrated after his honeymoon, “Chalk Cliffs on Rügen” demonstrates this big shift in style. 

Unfortunately, his ability to paint was greatly affected after suffering from a stroke in 1835. Following this incident, Friedrich was only able to work with watercolour and sepia due to immobility. This affected him, and symbols of death became more evident in his artwork before inevitably passing in 1840.

“Seashore by Moonlight” (1836)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seashore_with_Shipwreck_by_Moonlight.jpg

What type of art did he do?

Friedrichs fascination with the 17th-century Dutch landscape paintings influenced him in the 19th century to become a landscape painter of his own. After producing over 500 pieces of work in his career, Friedrich is very well recognized for his metaphorical and mystical landscapes. In addition to others, he helped place landscape painting as a major genre within Western art. Drawn mainly in a naturalistic and topographical style, woods, hills, harbours, and morning mists with close attention to the effects of light and nature appeared frequently in his work. For the most part, Friedrich used Indian ink, watercolours, sepia inks and oil paints to create his art pieces. 

“Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon” (1824)
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/10-artworks-by-caspar-david-friedrich-you-should-know/

Friedrichs work has been described as “a reunion with the spiritual self through the contemplation of nature”. It gave landscape paintings a new life by creating a spiritual essence inside each of his pieces.

Which art style was he a part of?

Friedrich was a part of the Romantic art style and is believed to be the most important painter of this movement. His main interest was the observation of nature in an anti-classical style to express the spiritual experiences of life. Friedrich intended on creating paintings that function as pure aesthetic statements and hoped to achieve this by not using overly descriptive or suggestive titles for his art pieces. The compositional device “Rückenfigur” is something that also becomes apparent in his work, being when a person is seen from behind. Friedrich liked to think about how the person feels/ their emotional views towards the scenery, not just the landscape on its own. 

“Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” (1818)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog

Header Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Caspar_David_Friedrich#/media/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Mondaufgang_über_dem_Meer.jpg