Caspar Friedrich

[Part Two Added]

A few thoughts on my favourite paintings of the Master Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)…

Thank you to the CasparDavidFriedrich.org website for publishing his entire works and allowing access for us all to study the Master.

Friedrich was clearly a philosophical man who understood the those different parts of life, our traversal through existence and the need for and conflict of spiritual and religious beliefs and context.  The paintings are not all concerned in subject with religious symbolism and paradoxes of belief but they are all, in my opinion, spiritual enabling our subconscious to gradually heal the conflict of the cosmos versus daily life by working at a philosophical level.  For those psychologists among us and the students of aging check out the Harvard Grant study (and for the Psychology and Business Masters check out Outbrain’s sponsorship and advertising method on that link versus Jung) a piece of Longitudinal research by George Vaillant and Friedrich’s Stages of Life painting to see just how good he was in terms of composition.

Cemetery (Cemetery snowscape theme paintings)
The painting called Cemetery is one of a series on the same theme each different in some way, explorations of light. The way in which the light reflects and refracts around the tree from the source in the far distant rear ground seems to my mind to be mastery. There is also a broken cross in the near ground on the left and this perhaps shows us the emerging underlying consideration of religion and the spiritual crucible we all face at times during our lives whatever our defining belief.

Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon c. 1824
I rather like the postures of the subjects in this painting, quite unusual to see a woman in a supportive pose and perhaps this says something important of all of us.

The Tree of Crows c. 1822
There is something Wickan, something mythical about this painting since crows are a given symbol of the mystical and are usually considered as the bringers of bad tidings. The tree is exquisite and root like in the branches as if showing us something about the reflective nature of mother earth. Friedrich was clearly a man who understood the deeper meanings of life as much as those of rationalism and romanticism. The tree winds on forever into the distance becoming ever small in scale until it becomes the crows that have taken flight. There is something oriental about the tree and also of the pictographic nature of the those crows to the left that seem to indicate an incremental sequence of numbers with their form, their wings and heads, 1-2-3-4-. This is likely to be associated more with Friedrich’s incremental graduation of themes towards one or more focal points than any ‘green man’ symbolism. Perhaps Friedrich was seeking or finding, by his Teutonic sense of intellectual balance, some latitudinal midpoint between Europe and Asia in his work.

Monk on the Seashore
This piece is important. That spiritual crucible again, the search for the meaning of and the purpose to life. I understand that this painting is in The National Gallery in Berlin. I would like to view the original and no doubt someday shall but from what I can see from the available digital images of the original, the may have been some painting over an old canvas or alternatively some brilliant randomized painting of the scenery something like white noise which allows us to see other memorable patterns in the even frequency texture. This can also happen with digital images when they are passed through image format compression algorithms resulting in super-pixelised ghosting to borrow phrases from the security digital image processing world. The white-noise ambiguity is also seen in Friedrich’s human subjects whose faces are often unseen. When there is so much bland (not in a bad way) scenery in the composition of the painting and so little of the detailed subject then the artist is really putting in the work to say something very important. If the original really does contain ghosting of secondary images then this may very well be either an accidental or planned masterpiece.

Winter Landscape with Church 1811
One of these two paintings is hung in The National Gallery in London. This is the first Friedrich painting I knew and I still plan to paint an interpretation of it myself having already made visits in order to map the foreground impasto of the snow and grid this complicated painting. Again, this seems to be on the theme of spiritual crucible with the subject man apparently hiking with the walking sticks of someone less able to walk and casting away his crutches on finding solace in a hidden alter (the theme here also seen elsewhere is ‘alter in the wilderness’). The crosses atop the building in the rear-ground perhaps reiterate the religious theme. One might argue that Friedrich uses a Michelangelo trick with the rocks on the left whereby either the colour or the form is of some other part of the painting or mirrors some other feature which is suggested. In this case, the rocks seem to be the form of houses and almost suggest the theme of small dwellings which add to the feeling of destitution of the human subject. This seems to be exquisite cleverness of composition.

Coffin and Grave
Somehow, with or without the artifacts hung on the tree, Friedrich has found a way to make this painting seem as though it is a scene from the ocean floor. The plants seem underwater like, the colour of the painting too, even the coffin seems to have the form of a rowing boat with cover something like a very early lifeboat though this may have been after the time. The spades appear to have box section timber to appear as signposts or broken pieces of shipwreck. The lack of detail in the sky and the general over exposed sentiment to the whole painting seems to predict the arrival of the early sepia tone photography. This is all rather genial.

Part Two…

Abend
Glorious pastel colour showing the flip side of Friedrich’s somewhat bleak scenes and almost industrialised religious architecture perhaps tricking the eye with the wispy white moke like cloud approaching the viewer. Could it be that this is a clever way of showing hope.

View of a Harbour (1815)
Majestic representations of tall ships moored in the harbour. The sunset is beautiful and subtle and the way in which the light and dark contrast regions of the painting are detailed. What makes the scene seem so graceful is the balance of the oars and the pole in the nearground rowing boat.

View from the Painter’s Studio (1805/06)
The scissors hanging on the wall are a great feature of this work. There is something about the angle of the window that is appealing and the reflection is interesting.

Landscape with Grave, Coffin and Owl (1836/37)
This is the most bizarre painting. Awesomely daring.

The Dreamer
Wonderful colours again and maybe the two halves of the window show us something about the two halves of the human mind represented by the symbolism of the trees.

Morning
Amazing colours and subtle stepped progression of the various grounds of the painting, the curling scenery at the edges of the painting create a sense of dynamism as if an evolution of nature has occurred.

Landscape-With-Solitary-Tree
This is a really great composition with a name that detracts from how great the painting is. Can this painting be renamed ‘The Shepherd’?

Cape Arkona
Incredible rendition of sunlight falling across the ocean and onto the rocky foreshore. This painting is a masterclass.

Hill and Ploughed Field Near Dresden
Nice colours and perhaps, retrospectively made more poignant by the damage that occurred to this city during the second world ward.

The Woman with the Cobweb
Just for the extremely unusual subject matter, this is a very strange composition and could be said to depict some hidden faces as may have occurred from time to time on Friedrich’s paintings.  The cobweb is an allusion to entrapment perhaps or a sinister husband or partner or possibly the suggestion of a black widow femme fatale.

Graveyard Under the Snow
This painting is so bold with really crisp clear distinction between the different subject items in the scene. This is definitely the Existentialist’s classic Christmas card scene. The main focal features of the foreground of the painting are fanned like a pack of cards from 3 O’Clock through 2, 1, 12, 11. The snow across the hillock is like a rolling sea under storm. This is a masterpiece under my own manifesto although traffic cones had not yet been invented.

The Cathedrale
Faces in the lower clouds perhaps, eight angels, macabre rainbow, glorious cathedral. This is sensational for the style. This may well have been a stained glass window design either for real or intended.

Easter Monday
This is the greatest of sunsets almost utilising the composition of The Cathedral and other similar paintings rising and narrowing towards the top of the painting for a inspirational effect.

Landscape with Pavilion (c.1797)
There is just something slightly Asian about this painting as occasionally appears in Caspar Friedrich’s work. There is definitely a tendency towards that particular artistic consciousness space in Friedrich’s work.

Meadows near Greifswald (c.1822)
Just worth a note to comment on the horizon. The windmills (or windpumps) along with the contrast between foreground and rearground make for a really pleasing and hope rousing painting.

Part Three to Follow…