Focus on this artwork and analyze the Rückenfigur and similar work.
Traditional art standards hold that if people are present in a scene, they are turned toward the viewer or in profile. Exceptions exist but are generally for minor characters in a crowded scene. While Friedrich was not the first artist to use a Rückenfigur, he used such figures turned away from the viewer considerably more frequently and persistently than other artists.  Friedrich's use of the Rückenfigur was generally considered to invite viewers "inside" the painting and encourage the viewer to consider the perspective from the depicted mysterious person whose face cannot be seen. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is perhaps the most famous Rückenfigur in art due to the subject's prominence.  The figure changes the sense and focus of the painting. Helmut Börsch-Supan wrote that "It is harder to imagine this landscape without a figure than it is in any other painting."Other works of Friedrich's comparable to Wanderer with such a Rückenfigur motif include Woman at a Window, Two Men by the Sea at Moonrise, and Neubrandenburg.Wieland Schmied argues that Wanderer was a precursor to the surrealism of René Magritte; Friedrich included subtle incongruities in his work and seemingly impossible perspectives, as seen in Wanderer, and Magritte took such elements even further in his work.  The background of the picture seemingly plunges into the foreground, with the depth between them unclear.
Two Men by the Sea Woman at a Window Wieland Schmied Two Men by the Sea at Moonrise Rückenfigur Neubrandenburg Helmut Börsch-Supan René Magritte surrealism