Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840) Oil on canvas 13 3/4
x 17 1/4 in. (34.9 x 43.8 cm) Wrightsman Fund, 2000 (2000.51)
This is the third version of one of Friedrich's most famous
paintings, of which the first (1819) is in the Gemäldegalerie,
Dresden, and the second (ca. 1824) is in the Alte
Nationalgalerie, Berlin. The two men contemplating the sinking
moon have been identified as Friedrich himself, on the right,
and his talented young colleague August Heinrich (1794–1822).
The mood of pious contemplation relates to fascination with the
moon as expressed in contemporary poetry, literature,
philosophy, and music. Both figures are seen from the back so
that the viewer can participate in their communion with nature,
which the Romantics saw as a manifestation of the Sublime.
Although the landscape is imaginary, it is based on studies
after nature that Friedrich had made in various regions at
different times. Both men wear Old German dress, which had been
adopted in 1815 by radical students as an expression