Bringing a major exhibition of work by the great German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in celebration of the artist’s 250th birthday in 2024, is a hard sell. So much so that the German ambassador to the United States, Andreas Michaelis, quietly informed visitors to the media preview on Monday why this artist, revered in Germany and in Europe, has been largely overlooked in the United States. In fact, there are only five major paintings by Friedrich in the country—all of which have been gathered into this stunning presentation of roughly 75 works across Friedrich’s career. And when one looks for information about the Romantic movement in painting (even on The Met’s own website), much is made of Eugène Delecroix and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, John Constable and JMW Turner, but Friedrich is not even mentioned. But first something about the artist himself. Above: Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea (1808–10); oil on canvas

Caspar David Friedrich (September 5, 1774 - May 7, 1840) was born in Greifswald, in Pomerania, and studied for four years, starting at age 20, at the Copenhagen Academy before settling in Dresden. He came of age during a chaotic time that seemed unmoored, upended as it was by war and revolution, and the rise of democratic idealism. The Industrial Revolution was beginning to change the man-made world and science was rapidly transforming the understanding of the natural one. Across Europe, a growing disillusionment with an overly-materialistic society led to a philosophical leaning towards idealism over realism, of nature, spiritualism and intuition over reason—and the appreciation of outdoor pursuits such as hiking in the mountains, swimming in the sea. Left: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (ca. 1817); oil on canvas

Friedrich pursued a traditional academic course of study, drawing from plaster casts of Greek statuary, making carefully delineated ink and wash studies of buildings and landscapes, as well as intricately cut woodblock prints and delicate watercolors. His first major painting sold to a patron was the dark and moody The Monk by The Sea (top), in 1810, after more than ten years of hard work. According to the exhibition text of a recent show at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Friedrich once wrote, “I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me; I have to merge with my clouds and rocks to be what I am.”  And later, “The artist should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If he sees nothing within him, he should also refrain from painting that which he sees before him.” Below: Caspar David Friedrich, View of Arkona with Rising Moon (1805-6); Brown ink and wash over pencil on wove paper; partial framing line in black-brown ink

A contemporary of John Constable, whom scholars regard as the quintessence of Englishness in his art, Friedrich has come to be regarded as the quintessential German Romantic painter. While he enjoyed great success during the 1820s through the mid-‘30s, poor health, together with a shift away from Friedrich’s introspective, elusive landscapes to the more earthly concerns of the Neo-Classical era, left him nearly forgotten; he died alone and penniless, having suffered a stroke that made it impossible for him to continue painting. He remained largely forgotten until Hitler picked up on his majestic landscapes around 1940, presenting Friedrich’s work in a special gallery built to showcase “Aryan” art. While his work gradually gained traction across Germany and Europe starting in the 1950s, its unwitting association with Nazis and the Holocaust kept American institutions and collectors away. Below: Caspar David Friedrich, The Evening Star (ca. 1830); oil on canvas

Another reason for this reticence might be the different face of self-reliance as espoused by the Transcendentalist movement, which emerged in New England concurrent with Friedrich’s working life in Dresden. Inspired by the Romantic movement in England and Europe, Transcendentalist writers and activists, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Margaret Fuller, believed that all creation is fundamentally connected; that people are inherently good, but society had corrupted them; that divine experience is inherent in everyday life; and that intuition is more important than logic and experience for understanding the deepest truths—and applying these ideals for the public good. The Puritan ethic that had prevailed since colonial times championed wealth as a God-given right. So, in a sense, the materialism espoused by the founding Puritans was retained, but dressed in a new suit of clothes for modern times. The notion of the alienated artist, publicly baring his soul, simply did not register in American artistic circles at the time. Below left: Caspar David Friedrich, The Watzmann (1824-25); oil on canvas. Right: August Heinrich, The Watzmann (recto); Sketch of Sankt Bartholomä on the Königssee (verso), (1820–22); watercolor on paper

So for most people who can visit The Met, now through May 11th, Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature, will be a great reveal. Friedrich’s art presents nature as a site of personal and philosophical discovery through the expressive power of perspective, light, color, and atmosphere. Viewing the more than 75 works on view, we can see that the artist created a form of landscape painting that articulates a profound connection between the natural world and the inner self. With roughly 20 early studies in ink and wash, watercolor, and woodblock prints, the show also offers a close view of the process through which Friedrich discovered his own unique place in nature. Also included are several paintings by his contemporary, Johan Christian Dahl, a Norwegian painter whose work is also in The Met’s collection of European art, and a rare watercolor by his student, August Heinrich, German (1794–1822), who gave Friederich all the information he needed to paint the majestic mountain scene, The Watzmann(1824-25, below) which he never visited himself

The Met will host a variety of multidisciplinary educational programs that explore nature, environmentalism, and Friedrich’s creative process including gallery talks on February 13, April 10, and May 8 at 3 p.m. with curators, graphic designers, and scholars, and a watercolor painting studio workshop on Saturday, March 22, inspired by Friedrich and our connections to landscape, to name just a few. Sunday at The Met on March 30 will bring together an interdisciplinary panel of experts to consider our ongoing and changing relationship with the natural world, how artists capture this unique dynamic, and how we navigate timely issues in an evolving natural environment. Info

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All images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

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