Caspar David Friedrich (September 5, 1774 – May 7, 1840)

                                                                                          

Monastery Graveyard in the Snow

1817-1819

Friedrich's life was melancholy, isolated and little lauded, yet after his death his influence became monolithic. Besides the amazing technique that he displayed in his works, there is a tremendous thematic power that overwhelms most observers when they stare into them. There is a pervasive loneliness and miniaturization of the human spirit in his works, which he did not mean simply as an expression of his own depression, but as a representation of his love for the spiritual over the material. There are no Romanticists I can think of whose works more clearly establish their consciences and souls than those of Friedrich. 

Eldena Ruin

1825

Two Men Contemplating the Moon

1819-1820

Winter Landscape

1811 

Self-Portrait

1810