A richly illustrated volume surveying the career of Caspar David Friedrich the German
landscape painter whose emotionally profound visions of nature are among the most iconic works
of Romantic art The paintings and drawings of the nineteenth-century German landscape
painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) brilliantly illuminate our experience of the natural
world. This generously illustrated volume explores how Friedrich who created some of the most
indelible images of Romantic art deployed signature motifs—moonlit skies Gothic ruins
isolated figures and misty panoramas—together with innovative compositional strategies to
create paintings and drawings that are metaphorically rich and emotionally profound. Friedrich
worked at the dawn of a new understanding in Europe of the human relationship with the nature
as German artists and intellectuals elevated the exploration of nature into a journey of
self-discovery yielding insights into spirituality mortality identity and history. Essays
by leading scholars examine Friedrich’s career considering how he created a new and open-ended
pictorial language to express the Romantic vision of nature. Placing his works in cultural and
historic context the authors evaluate his status as an icon of German Romanticism and as a
touchstone for visual culture in the United States while also exploring his working methods
and the complex themes that underpinned his art. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of
Art Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum
of Art New York (February 8–May 11 2025)
