1815, Caspar David Friedrich, Cross by the Baltic Sea -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label: Friedrich's signature motif, a cross in the mountains, descends to a rocky coast bathed in moonlight. Set on an outcropping above a massive anchor, the cross symbolizes the role of faith as guide and support. Friedrich wrote to the painter Louise Seidler, "To those who seek it, [it is] a consolation; to those who don't, it's just a cross." The lines extending to the right may be either mooring ropes or the boathooks used for pulling in and pushing away seacraft. Seidler commissioned this picture for the portraitist Dorothea Stock, whose niece and nephew had recently died. The composition proved popular and was repeated by Friedrich and copied by admirers.
1815, Caspar David Friedrich, Cross by the Baltic Sea -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label: Friedrich's signature motif, a cross in the mountains, descends to a rocky coast bathed in moonlight. Set on an outcropping above a massive anchor, the cross symbolizes the role of faith as guide and support. Friedrich wrote to the painter Louise Seidler, "To those who seek it, [it is] a consolation; to those who don't, it's just a cross." The lines extending to the right may be either mooring ropes or the boathooks used for pulling in and pushing away seacraft. Seidler commissioned this picture for the portraitist Dorothea Stock, whose niece and nephew had recently died. The composition proved popular and was repeated by Friedrich and copied by admirers.