Execute Magazine

Artist a Day: WILLIAM BLAKE 

Artist a day! CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH  (1774-1840)   Caspar David Friedrich was the ultimate figure of the German Romantic style in painting.   He was a man who had uncovered the mystery of landscape, and a painter of loneliness and despair, with human figures encountering the terrible majesty of nature.

Oil on canvas, 59 x 84.5 cm, 1810

Landscape with Rainbow

Blake's Works

The 19th century viewed Caspar David Friedrich, his generation's most influential German artist.

Oil on canvas, 94.8 x 74.8 cm, 1818

The Wanderer Above the  Sea of Fog

Blake's Works

Friedrich is known for his symbolic landscapes, which feature reflective figures against night skies, sunrise mists, bare trees, and Gothic ruins.

Oil on canvas, 73 x 59 cm, 1822

The Tree of Crows

Blake's Works

Friedrich's metaphorical and anti-classical work affected many contemporaries, notably Johann Christian Dahl (1788–1857), as well as later artists such as Arnold Bocklin (1827–1901), the Russian painters Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842–1910), and Ivan Shishkin (1832–98).

Oil on canvas, 34.9 x 43.8 cm, 1830

Two Men Contemplating the Moon

Blake's Works

Friedrich was profoundly religious and desired to paint an image that would communicate the power of God more thoroughly than through words. His approach to painting was highly controversial at the time.

Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 94 cm, 1835

The Stages of Life

Blake's Works

Friedrich was profoundly religious and desired to paint an image that would communicate the power of God more thoroughly than through words. His approach to painting was highly controversial at the time.

Oil on canvas, 46 x 58.5 cm, 1798

Wolves in the Forrest  in Front of a Cave

Blake's Works

FAMOUS QUOTES FROM CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH: "The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him." "Every true work of art must express a distinct feeling."

Oil on canvas, 115 x 110 cm, 1808

Cross in the Mountains

Blake's Works

Pencil and brown ink, 60.9 x 100 cm, 1806

 View of Arkona with  Moon Rising

Blake's Works

1798

Ship in the Arctic Ocean

Blake's Works

Oil on canvas, 110 x 171.5 cm, 1810

The Monk by the Sea

Blake's Works

Buy Our Art Book "See You There"

Arrow