1825, Caspar David Friedrich, The Watzmann -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label:
Friedrich situates viewers on a ridge amid seemingly impassable terrain. The tilting rocks zigzag toward a slanting stone pillar inspired by an outcropping he had sketched in central Germany. Dominating the landscape is the white-capped Watzmann, a mountain that lies in the Alps some four hundred miles to the south. Friedrich never visited it; instead, he likely referred to works by other artists. When he exhibited his painting in 1825, one critic marveled at his depiction of a harshly beautiful place: "No life dwells here but that of the air and the light."
This picture was later owned by Martin Brunn (1885-1951), who sold it to the Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1937, before fleeing Nazi Germany for the United States. It was restituted to his heirs in 2003.
1825, Caspar David Friedrich, The Watzmann -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label:
Friedrich situates viewers on a ridge amid seemingly impassable terrain. The tilting rocks zigzag toward a slanting stone pillar inspired by an outcropping he had sketched in central Germany. Dominating the landscape is the white-capped Watzmann, a mountain that lies in the Alps some four hundred miles to the south. Friedrich never visited it; instead, he likely referred to works by other artists. When he exhibited his painting in 1825, one critic marveled at his depiction of a harshly beautiful place: "No life dwells here but that of the air and the light."
This picture was later owned by Martin Brunn (1885-1951), who sold it to the Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1937, before fleeing Nazi Germany for the United States. It was restituted to his heirs in 2003.