Hamburg (dpa) – Nobody embodies German Romanticism in art more than Caspar David Friedrich. Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has opened a major exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the artist, who was born in 1774 and died in 1840. Berlin and Dresden will also be dedicating thematically independent exhibitions to Caspar David Friedrich next year.
“I am delighted that we are able this evening to usher in the jubilee year to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Caspar David Friedrich,” Steinmeier said at the opening of the exhibition. “We are opening here in Hamburg the first of three consecutive exhibitions that next year will focus on the most famous German painter of the Romantic period. Each of them will explore the artist, who was born in Greifswald in 1774, from a different perspective.”
The exhibition in Hamburg reveals that the famous artist was also one of those who paved the way for the Modernist era. “One central theme is the novel relationship between humans and nature in Friedrich’s landscapes. In the first third of the 19th century, this generated significant impetus for turning the landscape genre into ‘art for a new era’,” said Director Alexander Klar.
From 15 December until 1 April, paintings such as “Chalk Cliffs on Rügen”, “The Monk by the Sea” and his most famous work, “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”, will be on show in Hamburg. In all, more than 60 paintings and around 100 drawings, as well as works by the artist’s friends, will be exhibited.