Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature

A richly illustrated volume surveying the career of Caspar David Friedrich, the German landscape painter whose emotionally profound visions of nature are among the most iconic works of Romantic art

The paintings and drawings of the nineteenth-century German landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) brilliantly illuminate our experience of the natural world. This generously illustrated volume explores how Friedrich, who created some of the most indelible images of Romantic art, deployed signature motifs--moonlit skies, Gothic ruins, isolated figures, and misty panoramas--together with innovative compositional strategies to create paintings and drawings that are metaphorically rich and emotionally profound. Friedrich worked at the dawn of a new understanding in Europe of the human relationship with the nature, as German artists and intellectuals elevated the exploration of nature into a journey of self-discovery, yielding insights into spirituality, mortality, identity, and history. Essays by leading scholars examine Friedrich's career, considering how he created a new and open-ended pictorial language to express the Romantic vision of nature. Placing his works in cultural and historic context, the authors evaluate his status as an icon of German Romanticism and as a touchstone for visual culture in the United States, while also exploring his working methods and the complex themes that underpinned his art.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(February 8-May 11, 2025)

Author: Alison Hokanson,Joanna Seidenstein
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
Published: 02/25/2025
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.60lbs
Size: 10.90h x 9.50w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781588397898


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/30/2025 pg. 1

About the Author
Alison Hokanson is curator in the Department of European Paintings, and Joanna Seidenstein is assistant curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints, both at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.