
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) became the leading painter of German Romanticism, capturing landscapes charged with spiritual meaning. Born in Greifswald on the Baltic coast, he was the sixth of ten children raised by a candle-maker and soap boiler. Tragedy struck early. When Friedrich was thirteen, he watched his younger brother drown after falling through the ice of a frozen lake while they were skating. Some accounts say Friedrich tried to save him. This loss shadowed his life and may explain the melancholy that pervades his work.
Friedrich studied at the Copenhagen Academy from 1794 to 1798, then settled permanently in Dresden. His landscapes show solitary figures contemplating vast natural scenes: fog-shrouded mountains, moonlit beaches, ruined Gothic churches, gnarled trees against twilight skies. His Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818), showing a man with his back to the viewer gazing over swirling mist, became the defining image of Romantic individualism. He often used the Rückenfigur technique, depicting figures from behind so viewers could project themselves into the scene.
Friedrich was appointed professor at the Dresden Academy in 1824. But his reputation declined as Romanticism gave way to Realism. A stroke in 1835 left him partially paralyzed, and a second stroke in 1837 ended his painting career. He died in 1840, largely forgotten. Recognition returned in a 1906 Berlin exhibition that showed 32 of his works. Today, the Hamburger Kunsthalle holds Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog and other masterpieces. The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin and Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden also preserve major works.
15 paintings catalogued with museum locations

Caspar David Friedrich
Private Collection, Unknown

Caspar David Friedrich, 1818
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Caspar David Friedrich
Private Collection, Unknown

Caspar David Friedrich
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Caspar David Friedrich
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Caspar David Friedrich
National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst), Copenhagen, Copenhagen

Caspar David Friedrich
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Caspar David Friedrich
Folkwang Museum, Essen, Essen

Caspar David Friedrich
Oskar Reinhart Foundation, Winterthur, Winterthur

Caspar David Friedrich
Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Mannheim

Caspar David Friedrich
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Caspar David Friedrich
Private Collection, Unknown

Caspar David Friedrich
Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Dresden

Caspar David Friedrich
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ottawa

Caspar David Friedrich
Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Dresden
11 museums display Friedrich's works. Click any museum to see visiting info and the specific works they hold.



Unknown, Unknown
3 works on display

Vienna, Austria
1 work on display

Copenhagen, Denmark
1 work on display

Munich, Germany
1 work on display


Hamburg, Germany
2 works on display

Vienna, Austria
1 work on display

Winterthur, Switzerland
1 work on display

Ottawa, Canada
1 work on display

Essen, Germany
1 work on display


Dresden, Germany
2 works on display

Mannheim, Germany
1 work on display
Other Romanticism artists you might like
Explore art inspired by Romanticism.
Browse Collection