Why a Caspar David Friedrich Sketchbook Cannot Leave Germany
German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich is known for his motifs of sailing ships, graves, forests, clouds and the moon.
German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich is known for his motifs of sailing ships, graves, forests, clouds and the moon. With his sketchbook being sold at auction, we take a closer look at his life and work.A Caspar David Friedrich sketchbook is set to go on auction in Berlin on Thursday, November 30. And shortly before the sale, Berlin's Senate Department for Culture initiated proceedings to have the Romantic artist's work entered in the Berlin state register of nationally valuable cultural assets.
That means potential buyers outside Germany would not be allowed to take the sketchbook out of the country, at least not until after the conclusion of those proceedings, and even then, only after it were determined that the sketchbook failed to meet criteria deeming it a valuable cultural asset.
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A look at the item's provenance, however, shows that it is indeed a truly unique treasure.
Nationally valuable cultural asset
The "Karlsruhe Sketchbook," as it's known, was in the possession of the Kersting Family for 200 years. Georg Friedrich Kersting was also a notable German Romantic painter, as well as a friend of Caspar David Friedrich, who was born on September 5, 1774.
To celebrate next year's 250th anniversary of Friedrich's birth, Germany's museums, from Hamburg to Berlin and Greifswald, where the painter was born, are planning a wide variety of retrospective exhibitions and lecture series.
In his recently published book about Caspar David Friedrich, "Zauber der Stille" (Magic of Silence), German author Florian Illies writes that the artist's contemporaries reported Kersting helping his friend with the depictions of figures in his paintings. Why?
Illies writes that Caspar David Friedrich was considered a less-than-talented portraitist, for which he was even ridiculed during his time at the art academy in Copenhagen.
Is that the reason the figures in Friedrich's paintings are usually seen from behind?
Strokes of fate
Caspar David Friedrich was the sixth child of Greifswald soap boiler and chandler Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich and his wife, Sophie Dorothea. She died in 1781, and one of his sisters died a year later. Especially traumatic was the death in 1787 of his younger brother Johann Christopher. There are conflicting stories of what happened, with some accounts saying the younger boy drowned while trying to save Caspar David, who had broken through ice while skating. Of the painter's nine siblings, only five survived to adulthood.
From 1790, Friedrich was a pupil of Greifswald university and drawing teacher Johann Gottfried Quistorp, who gave him particular encouragement. He continued his artistic studies at the art academy in Copenhagen. From 1798, Friedrich lived and worked in Dresden, where he died on May 7, 1840.
Admired by many — but not Goethe
"Mystic with a paintbrush" is how Swedish poet Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom described Caspar David Friedrich. The Romantic painter gained the admiration of his colleagues during his lifetime.
Only Johann Wolfgang von Goethe did not know what to make of Friedrich's paintings. He derided them as "New German, religiously patriotic." The poet is even said to have smashed one of the artist's paintings on the edge of a table because he didn't like it.
In 1794, Friedrich attended the academy in Copenhagen, where he first encountered the nature mysticism that would influence his artwork. His first oil painting was provocative: the work "Cross in the Mountains" from 1807/1808 deals with the relationship of nature and God.
From then on, Friedrich's work was no longer the Enlightenment's window on the world, but a window to the soul, in the spirit of Romanticism. "Cross in the Mountains" caused a stir because in it, the painter gave equal space to both the church and nature.
A patriot and eccentric
Caspar David Friedrich was a reclusive eccentric who only left his house in Dresden for long walks after dusk. On January 21, 1818, he married 25-year-old Caroline Bommer — at six o'clock in the morning.
He was unsettled by Napoleon's military campaigns and the presence of French troops because they threatened him and his homeland. By 1806, Napoleon had occupied the majority of German territory.
That sparked nationalistic sentiments in Friedrich. The artist dreamed of the ideal of a united Germany and had equal reverence for both the Christian and the Germanic. His paintings often feature figures wearing traditional German costumes, a subtle expression of patriotism.
Invented landscapes
Though Caspar David Friedrich's brush and pencil faithfully captured each tree, cliff, mountain or unfurled sail, in his works he freely reassembled those individually observed elements. Nature was only an inspiration for him, rather than a template.
He combined his impressions into invented landscapes of his own imagination, such as "The Sea of Ice." The apocalyptic painting turns the frozen Elbe River into a wide sea, with a shipwreck crushed within slabs of thick ice, ominously piled high in the center of the image — a scene never witnessed by Friedrich, only imagined by him.
Until his death in 1820, he lived just a stone's throw from the Elbe River. His house at An der Elbe 33 in Dresden was where he hosted the future Russian Tsar Nicholas I, who bought several of his paintings.
The Enlightenment was followed by Romanticism
While the Enlightenment emphasized reason and a rational understanding of the world, the Romantic period that followed was marked by emotion and sensitivity. Subjective moods were given prominence, which can be seen in the art of Caspar David Friedrich.
Friedrich responded to the strict compositions of the Enlightenment with disquiet and emotion: jagged mountain landscapes, morning mist, gloomy layers of cloud that sometimes threaten to swallow people up.
One of his major works is "The Monk by the Sea," which he began in 1808 and is considered one of his most unconventional, as there is no depth perspective; sea and sky merge into one another. In the foreground, a small and reverent man stands with his back turned to the viewer — thus acting as a proxy and figure of identification. Infinity and the enormity of the universe are the themes of this painting.
Rügen's famous chalk cliffs
"Chalk Cliffs on Rügen" is considered one of Friedrich's most beautiful paintings, and it's among the most famous. He created it during his honeymoon in 1818. As if through a window, a motif frequently used by the painter, the view opens onto the Baltic Sea and a bright sky in the distance. The eye follows sailing ships gliding towards the horizon.
A number of works by Caspar David Friedrich have been lost over the years.
On October 10, 1901, his birthplace at Lange Strasse 28 in Greifswald burned down. Some of the paintings kept there could be saved, but well-meaning relatives painted over them, thus destroying them.
Among the art treasures lost during the Allied bombing raids on Dresden were several works by Friedrich.
Today, the majority of the remaining pieces are in the collections of museums in Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin.
The wheel of history
On May 7, 1840, Caspar David Friedrich died in poverty, his style of art no longer in vogue. New aesthetic movements had superseded Romanticism. Naturalism and Impressionism overtook Friedrich, leaving him behind.
His work had begun to lose its prestige by the 1820s, as the Düsseldorf School of painting became fashionable in Germany.
The rediscovery of his art began in 1906 with a small exhibition in Berlin that presented paintings and sculptures from the period of 1775 to 1875 and included 32 works by Caspar David Friedrich.
That launched a phase of popularity that continues to this day. Friedrich never signed any of his paintings because he believed his name would never be forgotten. So far, he was right.
This article was originally written in German.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 30, 2023 08:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).