1817 (ca.), Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (detail) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label:
Wanderers personified the Romantic search for connection and meaning in nature. This traveler, smartly attired in a green velvet suit, pauses on a windblown promontory to survey his surroundings. Although the overlook offers a commanding vista, the swaths of mist must obscure his vision. Positioned behind him, the viewer can only guess at what he sees.
Friedrich based the setting on drawings he made of rock forms in the mountains southeast of Dresden. To heighten the sense of a vertiginous expanse, he combined different sites into a single view, adjusting their proportions, modifying their contours, and shrouding them with clouds. Far in the distance, the terrain seems to dissolve into the air.
Evoking a combination of knowledge and uncertainty, vulnerability and power, and beauty and danger, this painting has become an iconic portrayal of the complex experience the Romantics termed the sublime.
1817 (ca.), Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (detail) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label:
Wanderers personified the Romantic search for connection and meaning in nature. This traveler, smartly attired in a green velvet suit, pauses on a windblown promontory to survey his surroundings. Although the overlook offers a commanding vista, the swaths of mist must obscure his vision. Positioned behind him, the viewer can only guess at what he sees.
Friedrich based the setting on drawings he made of rock forms in the mountains southeast of Dresden. To heighten the sense of a vertiginous expanse, he combined different sites into a single view, adjusting their proportions, modifying their contours, and shrouding them with clouds. Far in the distance, the terrain seems to dissolve into the air.
Evoking a combination of knowledge and uncertainty, vulnerability and power, and beauty and danger, this painting has become an iconic portrayal of the complex experience the Romantics termed the sublime.