“The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”
This dramatic and wonderful oil on canvas painting from 1817 is titled “The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” or “Wanderer above the Mist”. It is by the German Romantic artist, Caspar David Friedrich. It is one of the most iconic paintings to come out from the Romanticism art movement.
Friedrich was a master of turning a landscape painting into one of self-reflection. The lone figure is often seen as a self-portrait by Friedrich against the backdrop of a landscape painting to show his personal experience and contemplation of nature. Friedrich himself said that self-expression had to be done through physical and spiritual isolation, which is a constant theme throughout his work.
“The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” is an example of Friedrich’s allegorical landscapes in which a lonely figure would be silhouetted against a more sublime and dramatic landscape; a technique referred to as Rückenfigur. By showing the figure from behind, the artist invites the viewer to see the landscape through his perspective. Spirituality was going through a sort of renewal in popular culture at this time. Aided by the dissatisfaction with materialism, many artists, including Friedrich, were influenced by this. Nature was reevaluated and humanity’s place in the world was reduced to scale.
Friedrich originally sketched the outline of this piece at the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxony in Southeastern Germany. He made the final painting in his studio. Surprisingly, this painting was underappreciated in his lifetime and wasn’t largely appreciated until after his death.
“The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” is currently on display at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Kunsthalle Art Museum) in Hamburg, Germany.
For more on Caspar David Friedrich, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
