Indeed, Friedrich was captivated by the idea of encountering nature in solitude in deepest ravines, on the edge of the sea, or as here on the pinnacle of a mountain, which was about as far away from urban civilization as a European man could get. Unwilling to have the artist serve as a mere “photographer” as it were of nature, Friedrich always took as his task the private and personal encounter of an individual with nature. Here, Friedrich has adapted the generic conventions of landscape painting to the demands of creative self-expression. It would not be an exaggeration to take this picture as the essence of the Romantic approach to art. Here, he includes his own portrait within his landscape as a lay figure seen from behind - a device intended to invite the viewer to look at the world through the lens of the artist’s own personal perception. 1810–20įriedrich’s greatest accomplishment was his ability to turn landscapes into a medium of physiological and spiritual biography. Portrait of Caspar David Friedrich, Gerhard von Kügelgen c. The rocks on which the traveler stands are a group on the Kaiserkrone. The group of rocks in front of it represent the Gamrig near Rathen. The mountain in the background to the left could be either the Rosenberg or the Kaltenberg. In the background to the right is the Zirkelstein. The painting is composed of various elements from the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxony and Bohemia, sketched in the field but in accordance with his usual practice, rearranged by Friedrich himself in the studio for the painting. Beyond here, the pervading fog stretches out indefinitely, eventually commingling with the horizon and becoming indistinguishable from the cloud-filled sky. In the far distance, faded mountains rise in the left, gently leveling off into lowland plains in the east. Through the wreaths of fog, forests of trees can be perceived atop these escarpments. In the middle ground, several other ridges, perhaps not unlike the ones the wanderer himself stands upon, jut out from the mass. His hair caught in a wind, the wanderer gazes out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog. He is wrapped in a dark green overcoat, and grips a walking stick in his right hand. In the foreground, a young man stands upon a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer. It currently resides in the Kunsthalle Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. It has been considered one of the masterpieces of Romanticism and one of its most representative works. 1818 by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog ( Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer), also known as Wanderer above the Mist or Mountaineer in a Misty Landscape, is an oil painting c.
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