Caspar David Friedrich and the German Romantic Landscape

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), the leading artist of the German Romantic Movement, provides the focus for this fascinating book, which contextualises the artist's work in relation to his German predecessors, contemporaries and followers while also examining the important role which Russian collectors played in the development of this naturalistic genre.

Inhospitable, ancient and timeless landscapes characterise Friedrich's haunting paintings, and while there are clear stylistic differences between his works and those of his contemporaries, the significance of nature versus the insignificance of man is the common theme that links the images reproduced here.

This Romantic sensibility was shared by active Russian patrons, among them Emperor Nicholas I (under the influence of his wife, Prussian Princess Charlotte) and the poet Vasily Zhukovsky.This link draws out fascinating information about the lesser known but important artist Carl Fohr, whose tragically short career was enthusiastically supported by Princess Wilhelmina von Hessen (her daughter, Princess Maximiliana Wilhelmina of Hesse, later Empress Maria Alexandrovna, bought the works to Russia). The work of Carl von Kugelgen, who won commissions from the Russian court, is also examined in detail.

Presenting magnificent works held in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, which has the largest collection of works by Friedrich outside Germany, "Caspar David Friedrich and the German Romantic Landscape" combines sumptuous imagery with an insightful, scholarly narrative.