Moonrise by the Sea

Last updated
Moonrise by the Sea
Caspar David Friedrich - Mondaufgang am Meer - Google Art Project.jpg
Artist Caspar David Friedrich
Year1822
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions55 cm× 71 cm(22 in× 28 in)
Location Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Moonrise by the Sea or Moonrise over the Sea (German: Mondaufgang am Meer) is an 1822 oil-on-canvas painting by German painter Caspar David Friedrich. The work depicts a romantic seascape.

Contents

Three young people, two women side by side and a man further back, are sitting on a large boulder by the sea, silhouetted against the sky as they watch the moon rising to the east above a band of clouds. In the distance are two sailing vessels, ghosting on a light breeze towards the spectators on the shore. The painting is probably a view of the Baltic Sea, near Friedrich's birthplace in Swedish Pomerania. It may be based on the beach at Stubbenkammer near Rügen.

The work was commissioned by banker and art collector Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener, together with a second work, The Lonely Tree (Der einsame Baum), to create a pair of "times of the day", depicting morning and evening landscape scenes, in a tradition of Claude Lorrain. It was completed before November 1822 and has been held by the Berlin National Gallery since 1861, donated by Wagener as part of its founding collection. It is now in the Alte Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen in Berlin.

A similarly named but much larger painting from 1821 has been held by the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg since 1928, and was formerly in the Ropsha Palace  [ de; fr ], and had been hung in the drawing room of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich; it measures 137 × 170 centimetres (54 × 67 in).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspar David Friedrich</span> German Romantic landscape painter (1774–1840)

Caspar David Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his allegorical landscapes, which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins. His primary interest was the contemplation of nature, and his often symbolic and anti-classical work seeks to convey a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. Friedrich's paintings characteristically set a human presence in diminished perspective amid expansive landscapes, reducing the figures to a scale that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philipp Veit</span> German Romantic painter

Philipp Veit was a German Romantic painter and one of the main exponents of the Nazarene movement. It is to Veit that the credit of having been the first to revive the nearly forgotten technique of fresco painting is due.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pergamon Museum</span> Museum in Berlin, Germany

The Pergamon Museum is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II and according to plans by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann in Stripped Classicism style. As part of the Museum Island complex, the Pergamon Museum was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 because of its architecture and testimony to the evolution of museums as architectural and social phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neue Nationalgalerie</span> Art museum in Berlin, Germany

The Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its sculpture gardens were designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened on September 15th, 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altes Museum</span> Antiquities museum in Berlin, Germany

The Altes Museum is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Built between 1825 and 1830 by order of King Frederick William III of Prussia according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it is considered a major work of German Neoclassical architecture. It is surrounded by the Berlin Cathedral to the east, the Berlin Palace to the south and the Zeughaus to the west. Currently, the Altes Museum houses the Antikensammlung and parts of the Münzkabinett. As part of the Museum Island complex, the Altes Museum was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, in recognition of its testimony to the development of the museum as a social and architectural phenomenon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alte Nationalgalerie</span> Art museum in Berlin, Germany

The Alte Nationalgalerie is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. The gallery was built from 1862 to 1876 by the order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler and Johann Heinrich Strack in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles. The building's outside stair features a memorial to Frederick William IV. Currently, the Alte Nationalgalerie is home to paintings and sculptures of the 19th century and hosts a variety of tourist buses daily. As part of the Museum Island complex, the gallery was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 for its outstanding architecture and its testimony to the development of museums and galleries as a cultural phenomenon in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staatliche Museen zu Berlin</span> Group of institutions in Berlin, Germany

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters; several research institutes; libraries; and supporting facilities. They are overseen by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and funded by the German federal government in collaboration with Germany's federal states. The central complex on Museum Island was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1999. By 2007, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin had grown into the largest complex of museums in Europe. The museum was originally founded by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in 1823 as the Königliche Museen.

<i>The Monk by the Sea</i> 1808–1810 painting by Caspar David Friedrich

The Monk by the Sea is an oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1808 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown together with the painting The Abbey in the Oakwood in the Berlin Academy exhibition of 1810. On Friedrich's request The Monk by the Sea was hung above The Abbey in the Oakwood. After the exhibition, both pictures were bought by king Frederick Wilhelm III for his collection. Today, the paintings hang side by side in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

<i>The Abbey in the Oakwood</i> Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

The Abbey in the Oakwood is an oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1809 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown together with the painting The Monk by the Sea in the Prussian Academy of Arts exhibition of 1810. On Friedrich's request The Abbey in the Oakwood was hung beneath The Monk by the Sea. This painting is one of over two dozen of Friedrich's works that include cemeteries or graves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Gallery (Berlin)</span> Art museum in Berlin, Germany

The National Gallery in Berlin, Germany, is a museum for art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It is part of the Berlin State Museums. From the Alte Nationalgalerie, which was built for it and opened in 1876, its exhibition space has expanded to include five other locations. The museums are part of the Berlin State Museums, owned by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

<i>Two Men Contemplating the Moon</i> Series of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich

Two Men Contemplating the Moon and Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon are a series of similar paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, the setting being among his best-known works. Friedrich painted at least three versions, with one variation featuring a man and a woman. The 1819–20 version in the Galerie Neue Meister is thought to be the original; the c. 1824 variant with a woman is in the Alte Nationalgalerie; and the c. 1830 version is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

<i>Cairn in Snow</i> Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

Cairn in Snow, also known as Dolmen in the snow, is a landscape painting by the German painter Caspar David Friedrich. Friedrich is noted for his landscapes depicting features such as trees or Gothic ruins, silhouetted against the sky or in morning mists. The painting depicts leafless trees in the winter snow, with the tops of two of the trees broken off and the third bent by the prevailing wind, giving the work a haunted, spectral air. It is a Romantic allegorical landscape, depicting a stone cairn or dolmen set amid three oak trees on a hilltop, with a contemplative melancholy mood. It was probably painted around 1807, making it among Friedrich's first oil paintings. It measures 61 by 80 centimetres and has been held by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden since 1905.

<i>The Lonely Tree</i> Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

The Lonely Tree is an 1822 oil-on-canvas painting by German painter Caspar David Friedrich. It measures 55 × 71 centimetres (22 × 28 in). The work depicts a panoramic view of a romantic landscape of plains with mountains in the background. A solitary oak tree dominates the foreground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of Frederick William IV</span> Sculpture in Berlin, Germany

The equestrian statue of Frederick William IV is an 1875–86 sculpture of Frederick William IV of Prussia by Alexander Calandrelli, installed in front of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany.

<i>Two Men by the Sea</i> Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

Two Men by the Sea is a painting by Caspar David Friedrich, first exhibited at the exhibition held by the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1817, from which it was acquired a representative of mother superior Maria Richter of Berlin. It first appears in the inventories of the Nationalgalerie in 1936 as number A II 884. It was displayed at the Schloss Charlottenburg until 1967 and from 1986 to 2001 it was hung in the Schloss' Knobelsdorff wing. Since 2001 it has been displayed in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

<i>Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci</i> Painting by Adolph Menzel

Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci or The Flute Concert is an 1852 oil on canvas history painting by the German painter Adolph Menzel. It depicts Frederick the Great, King of Prussia playing the flute at an evening concert at Sanssouci and is now in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

<i>Medieval City on a River</i> (Schinkel) Painting by Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Medieval City on a River is an 1815 oil on canvas painting by the Prussian architect and artist Karl Friedrich Schinkel, which is now in the collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie, in Berlin.

<i>River Bank in Fog</i> Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

River Bank in Fog is a c. 1821 oil on canvas painting by Caspar David Friedrich, now in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud in Cologne, for which it was acquired in 1942 from the Graf Hahn collection at Schloss Basedow (Mecklenburg). It is also known as Elbschiff in Early Fog.

References