MET

Friedrich and the unfathomable quest for the sublime

The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibits the heir to German Romanticism in its collection

6 May 2025

2' min read

At the Met in New York - with a solo exhibition entitled The Soul of Nature - the most romantic of the Romantics, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), is on show. One of the few authors known to experts and laymen alike in the art world. One enters the exhibition with a glimmer of pathos, all united by the eagerness to see the famous 'man on the cliff', careless but tenacious travellers in search of the Sublime. Yes, because no one like Friedrich can read the eternal link between inner gap and landscapes, that sea of fog inherent in the human soul.

Da sinistra Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) Wanderer above the Sea of Fog ca. 1817; Monk by the Sea 1808–10 (destra in alto); Two Men Contemplating the Moon ca. 1825–30 (destra in basso)

75 works

75 works parade before the visitor and are imbued with meditation, mystery - drunk with wonder - permeating every romantic mood with light and shade.

Oil paintings, finished drawings and sketches from every stage of the artist's career are exhibited, revealing a symbolic vocabulary of landscape motifs, capable of conveying the personal and existential meanings present in nature during the years of tumultuous politics and vibrant culture of 19th century German Romantic society.

Caspar David Friedrich in mostra al MET di New York
Photogallery8 foto

Monk by the Sea

Mystical lights and crosses follow egregious, contemplative works such as Monk by the Sea, in which a monk in complete solitude stares into an existential void: perhaps his own. Or ours.

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) - Moonrise over the Sea 1822 - Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 28 in. (55 x 71 cm) - Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (W.S. 53) - Photo credit: bpk Bildagentur /Nationalgalerie, StaatlicheMuseen zu Berlin /Jörg P. Anders / Art Resource, NY

Rückenfigur

Superb Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1825-30), the first famous example exhibited of a Rückenfigur, "figure seen from behind", which shows Friedrich and his pupil amiably observing the moon, the painter's favourite star, a changeable companion of human feelings. And again, sunrises and sunsets, immense and fiery skies, white clouds and lingering expectations, as in the nostalgic oil on canvas Woman at the Window (1822) or the glorious work Woman before the Rising or Setting Sun (1818-24).

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) - Woman before the Rising or Setting Sun ca. 1818–24 - Oil on canvas, 8 5/8 x 12 in. (22 x 30.5 cm) - Museum Folkwang, Essen (G 45) - Photo credit: Museum Folkwang Essen-ARTOTHEK

Palms open, arms almost raised, the woman courageously welcomes the beginning or the end of her existence, a dawn or a sunset to be faced with ardour. There is hope in this salt and the universal comfort that only art can give. And again, The Stages of Life (1834).

Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature - Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) - The Stages of Life ca. 1834 - Oil on canvas28 ¾ x 37 in. (73 x 94 cm)

Youth and old age, life and death meet and greet the sails of a blazing sky on the horizon. And finally, the famous Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Wanderer on the Sea of Fog (1818), an iconic manifesto of Romanticism, a work in memory of a late friend of Friedrich's, which catapults us into the fantasy realities of Tolkien's Middle-earth, reminding us that 'not all who wander are lost'. A spark of hope, the reflective glimmer of Sublime glimpsed in the haze of this humanity torn between uncertainty and vulnerability, danger and power.

"Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature", The Metropolitan Museum of Art, until 11 May