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Friedrich’s masterpiece:

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Romanticism is the movement in art and literature that occurred in Europe and America during the mid 18th to 19th century. It was a movement that rose against the rationalism of neoclassicism, which gave a great importance to feelings.

Romanticism is a way to feel and express nature, life and human nature. The painters of romantic period did not paint according to what they were requested. They deeply expressed their ideas and feelings through their works.


Friedrich’s most famous work ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’

Perhaps the most famous romantic painting is known as the ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ (Oil on canvas, 94.8cm x 74.8cm). This painting is also named as “Wanderer above the Mist”. It was painted by the famous German artist Caspar David Friedrich in 1818. Caspar David Friedrich was a famous landscape painter of the 19th century.

He is best known for his later allegorical landscapes which presented reflective figures silhouetted against night hues, morning mist, barren trees as well as Gothic ruins. Friedrichs main interest as a painter has been the reflection of nature in his frequently symbolic art attempts to express spiritual experiences from life.

The painting ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ depicts the painter himself standing in the foreground, on a pinnacle of a mountain, poses his back to the viewer. He wears a dark green color overcoat and holds a walking stick in his right hand. His hair waves in the wind.

The wanderer is looking at the scene in front of him. The landscapes in front of him are covered with thick layers of fog. In the middle ground one could see some ridges and a forest of trees through the dense sea of fog. In the far distance there are some faded mountains and beyond that the fog stretches out until it meets the cloudy sky.

Caspar David Friedrich has taken various elements for his work from the mountains of the “Elbsandsteingebirge” in Saxony and Bohemia.

In the background to the right, the cylindrical peak is the Zirkelstein. The mountain in the background to the left could be either the Rosenberg or Kaltenberg. The rocky ridge in front of the wanderer could be Gamrig near Rathen. Rocky pinnacle on which the wanderer stands is the Kaiserkrone. The painter sketched the scene outdoors in that particular location and rearranged by himself in the studio for the painting.

This painting is a powerful statement of loneliness and difficulties experienced by people who are intellectuals. The wanderer in this particular painting is a representative of that special intellectual type. These kinds of works were quite typical in the romantic period.

Romantic period was the time when the industrial revolution took place in Europe. Many people attempted to get away from machinery that brought poverty and pain into their lives. People of this period desperately wanted to embrace the purity of nature and move away from the social hardships.

This wonderful painting of Caspar David Friedrich is currently displayed in the Kunsthalle Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany.

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