Caspar David Friedrich - Delphi Complete Paintings of Caspar David Friedrich (Illustrated)

Caspar David Friedrich

(17741840)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2016

Version 1

Masters of Art Series

Caspar David Friedrich

By Delphi Classics, 2016

Masters of Art - Caspar David Friedrich

First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2016.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 500 6

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Caspar David Friedrich was born the sixth of ten children on 5 September 1774, in Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania, on the Baltic coast of Germany.

Rear view of the birthplace of Caspar David Friedrich, 1844

The birthplace today

Friedrichs parents: Adolph Gottlieb Friedrich and Mutter Heiden

Caspar David Friedrich as a young man by J. L. Lund, 1800

THE HIGHLIGHTS

In this section, a sample of Friedrichs most celebrated works is provided, with concise introductions, special detail reproductions and additional biographical images.

Born in Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania, on the Baltic coast of Germany in 1774, Caspar David Friedrich was brought up in the strict Lutheran creed of his father, Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich, a candle-maker and soap boiler. Friedrich endured a tragic childhood, becoming familiar with death from an early age. His mother, Sophie Dorothea Bechly, died in 1781 when he was just seven. A year later, his sister Elisabeth died, while a second sister, Maria, succumbed to typhus in 1791. However, the most severe tragedy of his childhood was the 1787 death of his younger brother Johann Christoffer, who fell through the ice of a frozen lake and drowned, while trying to rescue Caspar David, who was struggling on the ice. The harrowing event would have a lasting psychological impact on the character and life of the artist.

Showing an early flair for drawing, Friedrich began his formal study of art in 1790 as a private student of artist Johann Gottfried Quistorp at the University of Greifswald. Quistorp would often take his students on outdoor drawing excursions, fostering an early interest in Friedrich for sketching from life outdoors. Through Quistorp, Friedrich met and was subsequently influenced by the theologian Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten, who taught that through nature we could see evidence of Gods existence. Kosegarten would call nature Christs Bible. An isolated figure living in natural surroundings, removed from the material world, Kosegarten believed it was possible to see in natural forms the revelation of Christianity. Kosegarten would have a profound influence on Friedrich and other Romantic painters of his age, inspiring artists to look at nature as a sign of religious creation.

Four years later, Friedrich entered the prestigious Academy of Copenhagen, where he began his education by making copies of casts from antique sculptures before proceeding to draw from life. Living in Copenhagen afforded the young painter access to the Royal Picture Gallerys collection of seventeenth century Dutch landscape painting. At the Academy he studied under teachers such as Christian August Lorentzen and the landscape painter Jens Juel. These artists were inspired by the Sturm und Drang movement and represented a midpoint between the dramatic intensity and expressive manner of the budding Romantic aesthetic and the waning neo-classical ideal. Mood was paramount and influence was drawn from such sources as the Icelandic legend of Edda, the poems of Ossian and Norse mythology.

By 1804 Friedrich had produced eighteen etchings and four woodcuts, apparently made in small numbers and only distributed to friends. Despite these forays into other media, he gravitated toward working primarily with ink, watercolour and sepias. The chalk drawing Self Portrait, 1800 portrays the artist at the age of twenty-six and was completed while he was still studying at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. The drawing reveals the face of a sensitive looking young man, whose head turned to the right gives the impression that he watches us warily. During this time the artist was beginning to experience personal problems, suffering a particularly serious bout of depression. One report, which surfaced after the artists death, suggests that he in fact tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a knife. This has now been given as the reason why shortly after 1800 the artist grew large bushy side whiskers, in order to hide the scar left by the failed suicide attempt. From now on, no self portrait by Friedrich would reveal an open view of the artists neck.

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