After the Storm

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Artist: Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 22.2 × 30.8 cm
Museum: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
Rights: Public Domain Mark

After the ravages of a storm, the mast rising towards the sky is broken. Lines and ropes flutter in the wind, and the maroon sail sinks into the sea. With great care, the artist has depicted the sunlight piercing the clouds, the rain over the sea and the white foam whipped from the agitated waters. Caspar David Friedrich grew up in Greifswald near the Baltic Sea, and throughout his life he regularly visited the nearby island of Rügen. Here he watched the sky and the sea in all kinds of weather. Ships at sea were a recurring theme in his art, often serving as symbols of life’s journey.

In Friedrich’s pictorial universe, human drama and immediate observation come together. The nuanced depiction of the stormy sky testifies to how Friedrich, like many other painters across Europe, was keenly interested in exploring cloud formations in various weather and under changing lighting. Friedrich was inspired by the realistic Danish style of landscape painting when he studied at the academy in Copenhagen 1794–1798. He subsequently maintained contact with several Danish artists, and his art was known and admired in contemporary Denmark (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).