What do you think?
Rate this book
Delphi Masters of Art #30
Complete Paintings of Caspar David Friedrich
Widely regarded as the leading figure of the German Romantic movement, Caspar David Friedrich produced vast and mysterious landscapes and seascapes that explored the theme of human helplessness against the forces of nature, establishing the idea of the Sublime as a central concern of Romanticism. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents Friedrich’s complete paintings in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)
* The complete paintings of Caspar David Friedrich — over 120 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order
* Includes reproductions of rare works
* Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information
* Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Friedrich’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books
* Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders
* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings
* Easily locate the paintings you wish to view
* Includes a selection of the artist’s drawings
* Scholarly ordering of plates into chronological order
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books
CONTENTS:
The Highlights
SELF PORTRAIT, 1800
THE TETSCHEN ALTAR
MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE WITH RAINBOW
THE MONK BY THE SEA
THE ABBEY IN THE OAK WOOD
THE CHASSEUR IN THE WOODS
HUTTEN’S TOMB
WOMAN BEFORE THE SETTING SUN
WANDERER ABOVE THE SEA OF FOG
CHALK CLIFFS ON RÜGEN
TWO MEN CONTEMPLATING THE MOON
MORNING
THE LONELY TREE
MOONRISE BY THE SEA
THE TREE OF CROWS
THE SEA OF ICE
THE STAGES OF LIFE
The Paintings
THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS
The Drawings
LIST OF DRAWINGS
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set
* The complete paintings of Caspar David Friedrich — over 120 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order
* Includes reproductions of rare works
* Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information
* Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Friedrich’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books
* Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders
* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings
* Easily locate the paintings you wish to view
* Includes a selection of the artist’s drawings
* Scholarly ordering of plates into chronological order
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books
CONTENTS:
The Highlights
SELF PORTRAIT, 1800
THE TETSCHEN ALTAR
MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE WITH RAINBOW
THE MONK BY THE SEA
THE ABBEY IN THE OAK WOOD
THE CHASSEUR IN THE WOODS
HUTTEN’S TOMB
WOMAN BEFORE THE SETTING SUN
WANDERER ABOVE THE SEA OF FOG
CHALK CLIFFS ON RÜGEN
TWO MEN CONTEMPLATING THE MOON
MORNING
THE LONELY TREE
MOONRISE BY THE SEA
THE TREE OF CROWS
THE SEA OF ICE
THE STAGES OF LIFE
The Paintings
THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS
The Drawings
LIST OF DRAWINGS
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set
426 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 19, 2016
27 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 21, 2021
I’m not one who is normally much into art, at least modern/post-modern/abstract art.
However, I do like Caspar David Friedrich’s artwork.
Part of it is the realism. It’s easier to appreciate the beauty in more realistic paintings, IMHO.
His paintings are often designed to inspire the viewer into a contemplative state of mind. For example:
- They show small human figure(s) surrounded by a vast and powerful nature, powerful both in its ability to create and sustain life as well as destroy it.
- The figures are often facing away from the viewer, allowing the viewer to place themselves into the role of the figure(s) in the painting, feeling what they might feel in that position.
- The painting often show at landscape near the end of the day in the evening or at night. Such times often lend themselves toward reflection. The evening or night lighting also gives the paintings a more unique beauty.
- As stated by the book, the sharp contrast between the foreground and background in his paintings represent the respective physical and spiritual planes of existence, helping one to draw comparisons between the two.
Some might call his works melancholy. Perhaps in some ways they are. Yet they also have a beauty I can relate to and a depth which stimulates thinking about life, nature, our place in the world, and much more.
These paintings work especially well when accompanied by philosophy and/or literature on similar topics.
However, I do like Caspar David Friedrich’s artwork.
Part of it is the realism. It’s easier to appreciate the beauty in more realistic paintings, IMHO.
His paintings are often designed to inspire the viewer into a contemplative state of mind. For example:
- They show small human figure(s) surrounded by a vast and powerful nature, powerful both in its ability to create and sustain life as well as destroy it.
- The figures are often facing away from the viewer, allowing the viewer to place themselves into the role of the figure(s) in the painting, feeling what they might feel in that position.
- The painting often show at landscape near the end of the day in the evening or at night. Such times often lend themselves toward reflection. The evening or night lighting also gives the paintings a more unique beauty.
- As stated by the book, the sharp contrast between the foreground and background in his paintings represent the respective physical and spiritual planes of existence, helping one to draw comparisons between the two.
Some might call his works melancholy. Perhaps in some ways they are. Yet they also have a beauty I can relate to and a depth which stimulates thinking about life, nature, our place in the world, and much more.
These paintings work especially well when accompanied by philosophy and/or literature on similar topics.
August 12, 2021
Casper David Friedrich is one of my favorite artist, his paintings speak to my soul, the romantic, gothic and mystical air, makes me think of the questions of life. His colors have such a luminous spiritual aspect which is too beautiful to behold. I love Gothic novels and his paintings touch my eyes as the words touch my mind, his paintings also touch my mind as well my eyes see the written words of a story. It is sad to see his work a century earlier had been used by the Nazis and Hollywood, which harmed his reputation, his not being around to have a say but his paintings will out live them all!
"Friedrich’s landscapes were usually designed and painted in his studio, while using freely drawn plein air sketches, from which he chose the most evocative elements to integrate into an expressive composition. The Monk by the Sea reveals evidence of this reductive process, as Friedrich removed elements from the canvas after they were painted. X-rays have revealed that he had initially painted two small sailing ships on the horizon, which he later removed. He continued to modify the details of the painting right up until its exhibition — to the sky’s grey was added blue, with stars and a moon — but the basic composition always remained the same."
"On 21 January 1818, Friedrich married Caroline Bommer, the twenty-five-year-old daughter of a dyer from Dresden, who was nineteen years his junior. The couple had three children, with their first, Emma, arriving in 1820. Physiologist and painter Carl Gustav Carus notes in his biographical essays that the marriage did not impact significantly on either Friedrich’s life or personality, yet his canvases from this period display a new sense of levity, while his palette is brighter and less austere. Human figures appear with increasing frequency, which Siegel interprets as a reflection that “the importance of human life, particularly his family, now occupies his thoughts more and more, and his friends, his wife, and his townspeople appear as frequent subjects in his art.” Friedrich’s paintings commonly employed the Rückenfigur — a person seen from behind, contemplating an awe-inspiring view of nature."
"Moonrise by the Sea was painted between 1818 and 1821, the happiest period of Friedrich’s life; commissions were flooding in from courts and prestigious patrons across the world and the artist was in great demand. The following plate reflects Friedrich’s memories of a journey he took with his wife six months after their marriage to his birthplace, Greifswald, from where they continued, with his brother and sister-in-law, to the island of Rügen."
"Friedrich’s reputation steadily declined over the final fifteen years of his life. As the ideals of early Romanticism passed from fashion, he came to be viewed as an eccentric and melancholy character, out of touch with the times. Eventually, his patrons fell away. By 1820, he was living as a recluse and was described by friends as the “most solitary of the solitary”. Towards the end of his life he lived in relative poverty and was increasingly dependent on the charity of friends. He became isolated and spent long periods of the day and night walking alone through woods and fields, often beginning his strolls before sunrise."
"Friedrich’s later years were characterised by a growing pessimism, where his paintings becomes darker, revealing a fearsome monumentality. The Sea of Ice (1823–24), also known as The Wreck of the Hope, perhaps best summarises his ideas and aims at this point, though in such a radical way that the painting was not well received at first. Completed in 1824, it concerns the harrowing grim subject of a shipwreck that occurred in the Arctic Ocean. The shipwreck occurs in the middle of a broken ice-sheet, with threatening ice shards surrounding the scene after the tragic initial impact. The ice is formed like a monolithic tomb, with edges jutting sharply into the cold sky. The stern of the wreck is just visible on the right, as any survivors are almost completely submerged in the icy depths. An inscription on the canvas confirms that the ship is the HMS Griper, one of two ships that took part in William Edward Parry’s 1819–1820 and 1824 expeditions to the North Pole."
"Though the calamity of Parry’s exhibition was a key source of inspiration for the work, others believe the true motivation for the canvas came from Friedrich’s recalling of his early childhood tragedy, when his brother drowned, falling through the ice. This skating accident had a lasting impression on the artist, when his brother saved him from drowning, but died himself in the process. Throughout his life Friedrich would be plagued with a sense of guilt for causing his brother’s death and many commentators have identified this underlying sense of remorse as pervading The Sea of Ice."
"After his friends had died, Friedrich’s work lay in near-oblivion for decades. During the 1930’s, his work was used in the promotion of Nazi ideology, which attempted to fit the Romantic artist within the nationalistic Blut und Boden. It took decades for Friedrich’s reputation to recover from this association with Nazism. His reliance on symbolism and the fact that his work fell outside the narrow definitions of modernism contributed to his fall from favour. Friedrich’s reputation suffered further damage when his imagery was adopted by a number of Hollywood directors, such as Walt Disney, built on the work of such German cinema masters as Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau, within the horror and fantasy genres. However, by the 1970’s, he was again being exhibited in major galleries across the world, as he found favour with a new generation of critics and art historians."
Some of my top favorites but there are too many to list, I find all his paintings so beautifully done.
THE ABBEY IN THE OAK WOOD
Woman Before the Rising Sun
WOMAN BEFORE THE SETTING SUN
Woman at the Window
"Friedrich’s landscapes were usually designed and painted in his studio, while using freely drawn plein air sketches, from which he chose the most evocative elements to integrate into an expressive composition. The Monk by the Sea reveals evidence of this reductive process, as Friedrich removed elements from the canvas after they were painted. X-rays have revealed that he had initially painted two small sailing ships on the horizon, which he later removed. He continued to modify the details of the painting right up until its exhibition — to the sky’s grey was added blue, with stars and a moon — but the basic composition always remained the same."
"On 21 January 1818, Friedrich married Caroline Bommer, the twenty-five-year-old daughter of a dyer from Dresden, who was nineteen years his junior. The couple had three children, with their first, Emma, arriving in 1820. Physiologist and painter Carl Gustav Carus notes in his biographical essays that the marriage did not impact significantly on either Friedrich’s life or personality, yet his canvases from this period display a new sense of levity, while his palette is brighter and less austere. Human figures appear with increasing frequency, which Siegel interprets as a reflection that “the importance of human life, particularly his family, now occupies his thoughts more and more, and his friends, his wife, and his townspeople appear as frequent subjects in his art.” Friedrich’s paintings commonly employed the Rückenfigur — a person seen from behind, contemplating an awe-inspiring view of nature."
"Moonrise by the Sea was painted between 1818 and 1821, the happiest period of Friedrich’s life; commissions were flooding in from courts and prestigious patrons across the world and the artist was in great demand. The following plate reflects Friedrich’s memories of a journey he took with his wife six months after their marriage to his birthplace, Greifswald, from where they continued, with his brother and sister-in-law, to the island of Rügen."
"Friedrich’s reputation steadily declined over the final fifteen years of his life. As the ideals of early Romanticism passed from fashion, he came to be viewed as an eccentric and melancholy character, out of touch with the times. Eventually, his patrons fell away. By 1820, he was living as a recluse and was described by friends as the “most solitary of the solitary”. Towards the end of his life he lived in relative poverty and was increasingly dependent on the charity of friends. He became isolated and spent long periods of the day and night walking alone through woods and fields, often beginning his strolls before sunrise."
"Friedrich’s later years were characterised by a growing pessimism, where his paintings becomes darker, revealing a fearsome monumentality. The Sea of Ice (1823–24), also known as The Wreck of the Hope, perhaps best summarises his ideas and aims at this point, though in such a radical way that the painting was not well received at first. Completed in 1824, it concerns the harrowing grim subject of a shipwreck that occurred in the Arctic Ocean. The shipwreck occurs in the middle of a broken ice-sheet, with threatening ice shards surrounding the scene after the tragic initial impact. The ice is formed like a monolithic tomb, with edges jutting sharply into the cold sky. The stern of the wreck is just visible on the right, as any survivors are almost completely submerged in the icy depths. An inscription on the canvas confirms that the ship is the HMS Griper, one of two ships that took part in William Edward Parry’s 1819–1820 and 1824 expeditions to the North Pole."
"Though the calamity of Parry’s exhibition was a key source of inspiration for the work, others believe the true motivation for the canvas came from Friedrich’s recalling of his early childhood tragedy, when his brother drowned, falling through the ice. This skating accident had a lasting impression on the artist, when his brother saved him from drowning, but died himself in the process. Throughout his life Friedrich would be plagued with a sense of guilt for causing his brother’s death and many commentators have identified this underlying sense of remorse as pervading The Sea of Ice."
"After his friends had died, Friedrich’s work lay in near-oblivion for decades. During the 1930’s, his work was used in the promotion of Nazi ideology, which attempted to fit the Romantic artist within the nationalistic Blut und Boden. It took decades for Friedrich’s reputation to recover from this association with Nazism. His reliance on symbolism and the fact that his work fell outside the narrow definitions of modernism contributed to his fall from favour. Friedrich’s reputation suffered further damage when his imagery was adopted by a number of Hollywood directors, such as Walt Disney, built on the work of such German cinema masters as Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau, within the horror and fantasy genres. However, by the 1970’s, he was again being exhibited in major galleries across the world, as he found favour with a new generation of critics and art historians."
Some of my top favorites but there are too many to list, I find all his paintings so beautifully done.
THE ABBEY IN THE OAK WOOD
Woman Before the Rising Sun
WOMAN BEFORE THE SETTING SUN
Woman at the Window
April 11, 2017
Most of these landscape paintings are breathtaking! They make me wish I was there. The eBook does a great job zooming in, very clear. I just wish my tablet were bigger!
Read
July 4, 2022I just found Delphi Collections, and this won’t be my last one. At only $2.99, the ebook featured all of Friedrich’s works, with a brief description of the more famous pieces. Very, very cool. The Monk on the Sea has become one of my favorite paintings of all time.
September 25, 2023
It's always pleasure to watch Caspar David Friedrich's paintings. His unique combination of majestic nature, subtle philosophy, divine elements, and... ah, those shades, those contours, those endless longings...
April 21, 2024
Nice introduction to the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews