1774 -1840 · Dresden, romantic landscape and spirituality of nature

In Dresden, the city chosen by Friedrich, the Neue Meister Gallery brings together an exceptional ensemble where crosses, dolmens, moon, snow and valleys transform the observed landscape into a spiritual, political and interior experience.

Caspar David Friedrich was born in Greifswald in 1774 and moved to Dresden in 1798 after his training in Copenhagen. The Saxon city became the center of his artistic life. He walks around the Elbe, Bohemia, the Harz and the Baltic coasts, filling notebooks with trees, rocks, doors and distances. In the workshop, he does not copy a single panorama: he brings together observations taken at different places or times to produce a slow, rigorous and meaningful composition. In the workshop, he does not copy a single panorama: he brings together observations taken at different places or times to produce a slow, rigorous and meaningful composition. The Neue Meister Gallery, installed at the Albertinum, preserves thirteen paintings by Friedrich which allow us to follow this process from the first works to the maturity. The Tetschen Altarpiece, or Cross in the Mountain, painted in 1807-1808, provokes a famous debate because it makes the landscape itself a religious subject. The cross seen from a low angle, the fir trees and the rays of the sunset replace traditional sacred history with an indirect experience of faith. Two men contemplating the moon, from 1819 -1820, appears more intimate but also carries a political dimension: the figures' Old German costumes of the figures evoke the liberal aspirations repressed after Carlsbad's decrees. Dolmens, cemeteries and doors add to the landscape a reflection on time, death and German memory. Dolmens, cemeteries and doors add to the landscape a reflection on time, death and German memory. the Elbe reveals an extreme economy, where a few branches and values are enough to build the season. A faithful reproduction must preserve the thin layers, the transitions of the sky, the dark silhouettes and the silent intervals which give the motif its interior scope. The selection "Caspar David Friedrich at the Neue Meister Gallery" notably compares Tetschen's Altarpiece - Caspar David Friedrich and Two Men Contemplating the Moon - Caspar David Friedrich. His reading favors details.

At the Neue Meister Gallery, Friedrich shows that landscape can become an altarpiece, political memory or meditation without ceasing to be composed from exact observations.