![]() ![]() The rise of Nazism in the early 1930s again saw a resurgence in Friedrich's popularity, but this was followed by a sharp decline as his paintings were, by association with the Nazi movement, interpreted as having a nationalistic aspect. By the 1920s his paintings had been discovered by the Expressionists, and in the 1930s and early 1940s Surrealists and Existentialists frequently drew ideas from his work. The early 20th century brought a renewed appreciation of his work, beginning in 1906 with an exhibition of thirty-two of his paintings in Berlin. As Germany moved towards modernisation in the late 19th century, a new sense of urgency characterised its art, and Friedrich's contemplative depictions of stillness came to be seen as the products of a bygone age. Nevertheless, his work fell from favour during his later years, and he died in obscurity. įriedrich's work brought him renown early in his career, and contemporaries such as the French sculptor David d'Angers spoke of him as a man who had discovered "the tragedy of landscape". ![]() Turner and John Constable sought to depict nature as a "divine creation, to be set against the artifice of human civilization". This shift in ideals was often expressed through a reevaluation of the natural world, as artists such as Friedrich, J. He came of age during a period when, across Europe, a growing disillusionment with materialistic society was giving rise to a new appreciation of spirituality. He studied in Copenhagen until 1798, before settling in Dresden. įriedrich was born in the town of Greifswald on the Baltic Sea in what was at the time Swedish Pomerania. Friedrich's paintings characteristically set a human presence in diminished perspective amid expansive landscapes, reducing the figures to a scale that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension". His primary interest was the contemplation of nature, and his often symbolic and anti- classical work seeks to convey a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes, which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins. We see no face, so it's impossible to know whether the prospect facing the young man is exhilarating, or terrifying, or both." Ĭaspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – ) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. This well-known and especially Romantic masterpiece was described by the historian John Lewis Gaddis as leaving a contradictory impression, "suggesting at once mastery over a landscape and the insignificance of the individual within it. ![]()
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