Art

Art Travel Guide

Echoes of Solitude: Germany’s 2024 Museum Exhibition Honoring Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich would be celebrating his 250th birthday soon, if he had not died a penniless artist in 1840. Three different exhibits of the artist’s works are planned in Germany this year. Hamburg’s Kunsthalle, Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie, and Dresden’s Albertinum and Kupferstich-Kabinett will all be displaying the artist’s work. It is to commemorate the artist spending his life and career in Germany, even though he did not reach the heights of his fame until well after his death in 1840.

Friedrich was known for his romantic landscapes and emotional depiction of solitary figures. One of his most celebrated works of art, The Monk by the Sea, is a panoramic sweep of beach and ocean with a tiny dark figure at the center facing the white-tipped waves. However, Caspar David is probably best known for his depiction of the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog:

Thanks to some royal purchases the city of Berlin made during his career, Berlin has one of the most significant collections of Friedrich works in the world. During World War II, he was widely known as one of Hitler’s favorite artists. Many museums avoided showing his art post World War II because of that stigma. However, in recent years more contemporary artists have begun to support his paintings and made him popular again.

After his works is finished with the German shows, there are already plans to show his work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York next year. If you would like to enjoy some of his beautiful works before then, feel free to browse our Caspar David Friedrich art gallery. You can bring one of the romantic landscapes into your own home to admire.