Although the 250th anniversary of the birth of Caspar David Friedrich is in 2024 – the painter was born on September 5, 1774 – the first major exhibition opened on December 15, at the Hamburger Kunsthalle museum. A retrospective of more than 60 paintings, including many iconic works such as ‘Limestone Slopes of Rügen’ (1818) and ‘The Monk at Sea’ (1808-10). Drawings and works of friends of the painter are also exhibited.

The exhibition marks the start of the “Caspar David Friedrich Festival”, during which the Old Gallery of the State Museums in Berlin and the State Art Gallery in Dresden will pay major tributes to the artist. The event is under the auspices of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Caspar David Friedrich was born in Greifswald in 1774 as the sixth child of soap and candle maker Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich and his wife Sophie Dorothea. His mother died in 1781 and his sister of typhus. His younger brother Johan Christopher suffered a heart attack when he once tried to save him who had fallen into the frozen river Elbe. Only five of the nine siblings managed to reach adulthood.

From 1790, Friedrich studied in Greifswald and continued his artistic studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. From 1798 he lived and worked in Dresden where he died on May 7, 1840.

He was appreciated by many, but not by Goethe

The Romantic painter was appreciated by his colleagues already during his lifetime. Yet Goethe derided his paintings as “neo-Germanic and patriotic”. The poet is even said to have destroyed one of Friedrich’s paintings because he didn’t like it.

Caspar David Friedrich although he loved nature and loved in every way to paint every tree, every rock, every mountain, after all nature for him was nothing more than a piece of inspiration. He wanted to invent landscapes, as in the “Arctic Ocean”, and compose his impressions in his workshop according to his own taste.

One of his most important works is “The Monk at the Sea”, which began in 1808 and is considered one of his most unconventional works, as there is no perspective, no depth. Sea and sky merge. Infinity and the universe is the theme of this painting.

Limestone slopes of Rügen

The painting “Limestone slopes of Rügen” is also considered one of the most beautiful and perhaps the most famous works of Caspar David Friedrich. Painted during their honeymoon in the summer of 1818, it shows a view of the Baltic and a bright sky in the background.

But his works were burned many times. On October 10, 1901, the house where he was born burned down, along with many paintings. Also during the bombing of Dresden in WWII. Today, museums in Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin hold most of Caspar David Friedrich’s works.

The artist died poor and forgotten on May 7, 1840. Nowadays he is again in demand. Friedrich himself naively believed that his name would be remembered forever, so he did not sign his paintings.