Caspar David Friedrich Exhibit

Certainly the most famous of romantic painters, and arguably one of the best known German painters at all, Caspar David Friedrich is having his 250th birthday this year, and Germany is celebrating. 

The exhibit is being shown in Hamburg, Berlin and last stop Dresden, where the artist lived and worked for 40 or so years. Of course, we had to go.  And since I was past due for a haircut, we asked Rima and René if they'd like to come along after my appointment. Yes! they said.  Great. So we made it a day.  

We woke to snow and were happy we'd be taking the train to Hamburg. It was pretty full, but that's no surprise. I think there are 4 stops between here and Hamburg-Harburg where we get off (the final stop is one later at Hamburg Main Station) and I am forever amazed at how many folks travel between here and there! Of course, not all make the full trip, but the majority seem to.  Are they working? Travelling to some other place and need to transfer in Hamburg? Shopping here or there? 

It's about a 15 minute walk from the station to Rima and René's shop and we had to use our umbrellas to keep the snow off our heads! But I prefer snow to cold rain, so it was fine.

My head has a new look (no pics, sorry) and Rima, like every hairdresser I have ever had, wants to part my hair opposite of what I do.  But it's a slightly new look and I'll keep it for a while.

Since it's a popular exhibit, the tickets are timed, and we were scheduled for 4pm-7pm entry.  Time enough after the new style to have some lunch. We found a Vietnamese place not too far away and had some tasty food that is not what we do at home - wan tan followed by fried noodles and crispy duck! 

So, Herr C. D. Friedrich. Here's a link if you want to see it in detail   Landing page – 250 Jahre Caspar David Friedrich (cdfriedrich.de   At the very top on this entry is his most famous painting, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, and it has been analyzed and discussed at great length by more famous analysts than I (LOL).  But what is true of this painting, and many others of his, is symmetry. The focal point is clear (actually, it screams at you) and the balance of the elements of the painting are secondary only to the overall feel of the power of nature and the reverence that the artist feels for nature/God/Supreme Being.

But of course there was lots (and lots) more.  An early impression of mine was he did a lot more painting (that survived) than Vermeer. In fact, from this exhibit, I'd say he had many ten times the output. What that meant for me in the short term was a lot more to look at and try to digest.  At the end, I decided that German Romanticism ranks somewhat behind French Rococo in my list of likes, and Rococo is not even in the middle of that list. 

Like every artist, he did a lot of self- portraits and other artists did portraits of him as well. 

This one just above is only about 3 inches square!! Such detail - and it was not the first time I wondered how small some of the brushes were that these artists of the time used.

Here a landscape with a "moon rainbow", and below a detail from the lower right corner of the painting. EVERY millimeter of canvas was detailed. So many blades of grass, needles on evergreens, leaves on trees, meticulously painted.

There were a lot of sketches and preliminary drawings.  Here's Werner next to one that I found lovely.

So small!! And here's the close-up. Thousands and thousands of strokes.

After an hour plus, it was enough. My back was yelling at me and my feet and knees were talking to me as well. As much as I love art and museums and exhibits, it is becoming harder and harder to stand around on marble floors. An hour is about all I can manage without a sit-down.  Unfortunately, this exhibit had no sit-downs until the very end of the major part of the show. More resting places would have been welcome.

But it was great fun being with René and Rima for the day without the usual hullabaloo of preparing eats for a lot of folks and all that that entails. We will do another such outing again!