Two Men Contemplating the Moon

Two Men Contemplating the Moon, Caspar David Friedrich, 1825

 

Two .Men Contemplating the .Moon

ca. 1825-30

Oil on canvas

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

Wrightsman Fund, 2000

 

A man rests his arm on his companion's shoulder

while the pair gaze toward the moon and, at right,

the evening star. For the Romantics, the two

celestial bodies held mystical allure as emblems

of mortality and renewal. One of the men is

Friedrich's pupil August Heinrich, and the other

is either Friedrich or one of his artist brothers-in-

law. The figure. on the right wears a medieval-

style cloak and beret, an outfit banned in 1819

because it was worn by politically liberal student

groups. Friedrich gave an earlier version of this

composition, made in 1819, to Johan Christian Dahl.

Dahl soon painted his own testament to creative

fellowship, which hangs nearby.

Done