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 successful 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. He
grew a beard to hide the scar from view. Friedrich was a melancholy
figure, which may explain 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 21st,
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, he was almost 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
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