Page 21 - Studio International - September 1972

work, and perhaps also explains why, with the
exception of Carus, he had no followers of any
standing. For in front of the kind of painting
made by Friedrich, the spectator is invited to
meditate rather than to reflect, to concentrate
and narrow his experience rather than to
broaden it. In Friedrich's case his skill,
intelligence and sophistication as a painter leave
their imprint visibly over the entire canvas, and
thus provide an objective grip which both
painter and spectator can use to maintain their
sobriety, to relate the work to a wider cultural
context. The present century has provided
enough examples of the dangers inherent in this
kind of painting when the objective grip is
missing—a situation in which the spectator's
role is to go into a mindless, ecstatic trance in
front of an optical surface which is impenetrable
to the intelligence or the senses.
2. Wiesen bei Greifswald (Meadow at Greifswald)
Hamburg Kunsthalle no. 1047.
It is painted according to a system used very
often by Friedrich, in which he starts at the
bottom of the picture (foreground) with dark,
transparent glazed colours, and continues
upwards with increasingly opaque, brighter

(Left top)
Der Wanderer uber dem Nebelmeer 1810
Oil on canvas
Kunsthalle, Hamburg
(Left bottom)
Das Kreuz im Riesengebirge1810-11
Oil on canvas, 108 x 170 cm
Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin
(Top)
Der Einsame Baum 1823
Oil on canvas, 55 x 71 cm
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
(Bottom)
Mondaufgang am Meer 1823
Oil on canvas, 55 x 71 cm
Nationalgalerie, Berlin

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