Caspar David Friedrich – Wanderer above the sea of fog. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is a painting by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich made in 1818. It has been considered one of the masterpieces of the Romantic movement and one of its most representative works. Borsch hugo borsch painting has been widely interpreted as an emblem of self-reflection or contemplation of life’s path, and the landscape is widely considered to evoke the sublime.
While Friedrich was respected in German and Russian circles, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog and Friedrich’s work in general were not immediately regarded as masterpieces. Wanderer became particularly popular, appearing as an example of “popular art” as well as high culture on books and other works. In the foreground, a man stands upon a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer. He is wrapped in a dark green overcoat, and grips a walking stick in his right hand. His hair caught in a wind, the wanderer gazes out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog. In the middle ground, several other ridges, perhaps not unlike the ones the wanderer himself stands upon, jut out from the mass. The painting is composed of various elements from the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxony and Bohemia, sketched in the field but in accordance with his usual practice, rearranged by Friedrich himself in the studio for the painting.
In the background to the right is the Zirkelstein. The date of creation of Wanderer is generally given as 1818, although some sources indicate 1817. The provenance of the painting in the 19th century is unclear, but it came to the ownership of the gallery of Wilhelm August Luz in Berlin in 1939. It was then apparently sold to Ernst Henke, a German lawyer, before returning to the Luz gallery. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is closely associated with Romanticism, a broad artistic and literary movement that emerged after the Age of Enlightenment. Differences still exist between Friedrich and other Romanticists.
Werner Hofmann wrote that Wanderer was more open-ended and questioning than typical Romantic works. Friedrich criticized other artists of his day as painting overfilled “curiosity shops” that covered every part of the canvass with new features. Traditional art standards hold that if people are present in a scene, they are turned toward the viewer or in profile. Exceptions exist but are generally for minor characters in a crowded scene. While Friedrich was not the first artist to use a Rückenfigur, he used such figures turned away from the viewer considerably more frequently and persistently than other artists. It is harder to imagine this landscape without a figure than it is in any other painting.
Other works of Friedrich’s comparable to Wanderer with such a Rückenfigur motif include Woman at a Window, Two Men by the Sea at Moonrise, and Neubrandenburg. Friedrich included subtle incongruities in his work and seemingly impossible perspectives, as seen in Wanderer, and Magritte took such elements even further in his work. Friedrich was an outspoken supporter of German liberal and nationalist feeling. A matter less clear is how Friedrich’s Lutheranism affected Wanderer, if at all. Friedrich’s religious side is seen in other paintings of his, such as the 1810 painting Cross in the Mountains, which fit a humble sort of Christianity that found beauty in nature. Carus argued the fog was God’s assistant in the Creation, turning barren mountains into verdant forests. Koerner hypothesizes that Carus and Friedrich could have discussed the matter in the course of their friendship.