Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich was born on the 5th of September 1774 and died on the 7th of May 1840. Caspar was a landscape painter of the nineteenth century German Romantic movement. Caspar is ow known as the most important painter. Although he is known for his landscape paintings he is also a draughtsman. He is best known for later allegorical landscapes, which feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees, and Gothic ruins. As an artist his favourite subject of drawing was nature, in his work he often seeks to convey the spiritual experiences of life. Caspar is a German Artist, and he was born in the north of Germany in Greifswald. He studied in Copenhagen till 1798. He studied in Copenhagen until 1798 before settling in Dresden. He came of age during a period when, across Europe, a growing disillusionment with an over-materialistic society led to a new appreciation for spiritualism. This was often expressed through a reevaluation of the natural world, as artists such as Friedrich, J. M. W. Turner and John Constable sought to depict nature as a "divine creation, to be set against the artifice of human civilization". Caspar's Art work was mostly known during the second half of the nineteenth century. his art was getting famous while Germany was moving towards modernisation. His rediscovery began in 1906 when an exhibition of 32 of his paintings and sculptures was held in Berlin. During the 1920s his work was appreciated by the Expressionists, and in the 1930s and 1940s, the Surrealists and Existentialists frequently drew on his work. Nowadays Caspar is seen as an icon of the Germa Romantic movement, and a painter of international importance. 

Reference:

• Caspar David Friedrich - The complete works. 2013. Caspar David Friedrich - The complete works. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.caspardavidfriedrich.org/. [Accessed 05 March 2013].