Landscape painter of Romanticism. Born in Greifswald, on north
German coast, where he received a spartan Protestant upbringing.
His father was a candle-maker and not unsuccessful in business.
His mother died in 1781 and in 1787 his brother drowned while
he tried to save Friedrich's life after a skating accident.
Friedrich studied art at the Copenhagen Academy (1794-1798)
and moved to Dresden in 1798.
In Dresden he came into
contact with Tieck and Novalis. Around 1803 he was subjected
to depressions and probably tried to kill himself by cutting
his throat. Reportedly, he grew a beard to hide the scar from
view. Friedrich was a melancholy figure, which perhaps explains
the mysterious and intense nature of his work. His many trips
into the mountains and the countryside provided him with material
that he used for his paintings in subsequent years.
Soon
after this black period celebration and fame followed. In 1805
he won a prize awarded by the Weimar Friends of Art (Goethe
and Mayer) and in 1808 he started using oil for his paintings
("The Cross in the Mountains", 1808, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden).
In 1811 he became a member of the Academy in Berlin. He married
the much younger Caroline Bommer on Januari 21th, 1818 at the
Kreuzkirche, Dresden. From 1823 the Norwegian painter J.C.C.
Dahl lived under his roof at his house on the banks of the Elbe.
After
a severe stroke in 1835 it was hard for him to keep working.
Although the crown prince of Prussia had bought his work in
1810 it seems that he had completely been forgotten at the time
of his death in 1840.
Nine of his paintings were lost
when the Glaspalast in Münich burnt down on March 6th, 1931.
Work:
"Abbey in the Oakwoods" (1810, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin);
"Wanderer Looking over a Sea of Fog" (c.1815, Kunsthalle, Hamburg);
"Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (c.1819, Oskar Reinhart Foundation, Winterthur);
"Woman at the Window" (1822); "The Stages of Life" (c.1835,
Museum der Bildende Kunste, Leipzig).
Related persons
• was painted by Bähr, Johann Karl Ulrich
• was a friend of Carus, Carl Gustav
• influenced Carus, Carl Gustav
• was pupil of Kügelgen, Gerhard von
• was painted by Kügelgen, Gerhard von
• knew Oehme, Ernst Ferdinand
• knew Runge, Philip Otto
• knew Seidler, Louise
• knew Tieck, Ludwig
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