Behind the Art: Why is Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich considered one of the masterpieces of the Romantic movement?

What attracts viewers is the visual appeal of the painting. A man stands with his back to the viewer on a rocky precipice in the foreground. He is wearing a dark green overcoat and holding a walking stick in his right hand. The wanderer is looking out over a landscape that is covered in a thick sea of fog, his hair blowing in the wind. The painting is made up of various elements from the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxony and Bohemia. Friedrich sketched them out in the field, but he rearranged them in the same way he usually does in the studio for the painting. As a result, it may not accurately depict the mountain ranges and their locations. Caspar David Friedrich often depicted his figures in this manner, which he referred to as a “compositional strategy/device.” The man stands with his back to the audience and the German word for “figure from the back” is Rückenfigur, which refers to this unique method.

Why did Friedrich paint the Wanderer above the sea of fog?

Friedrich’s paintings are dominated by the sublime power of nature. His personal history may also account for the ominous tension between beauty and terror in his depiction of nature, which was influenced by the landscapes of his native Germany. When he was young, he and his brother were skating on the frozen Baltic Sea when the ice cracked. Caspar fell, and his brother saved his life. It is said that this incident stayed with Friedrich for life and due to his depression, he attempted suicide in Dresden. He always wore a beard to cover the wound from his attempt to cut himself. Friedrich’s statement, “The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself,” demonstrates the connection between inspiration and trauma.

It’s possible that Friedrich’s work, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, which he created the year he got married, is about his struggle to control his strong emotions for the sake of his young bride. Based on Caspar David Friedrich’s red hair colour, some art history sources suggest that the figure in this painting was the artist himself. Whereas, some historians claim that the man could be Colonel Friedrich Gotthard von Brincken and that this painting was made as a kind of “patriotic epitaph” for him after he died. This hints at Friedrich’s interest in politics in the early 19th century and suggests that he was a German Nationalist.

Romanticism and the legacy of the painting

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is considered a masterpiece of the Romantic movement which is a broad artistic and literary movement that emerged after the Age of Enlightenment. The Romantic movement was a European intellectual, artistic, literary, and musical movement that began toward the end of the 18th century. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism, paganism, idealization of nature, distrust of science and industrialization. And this was what Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” captures. It shows a man confronting the vastness of nature and ultimately God. He is truly in the presence of greatness, and as we look at him as he looks out over the landscape and maybe even thinks about his life and the natural world. However, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog and Friedrich’s work, in general, were not immediately regarded as masterpieces, despite Friedrich’s respect in German and Russian circles. In the early 20th century, specifically in the 1970s, Friedrich’s reputation improved. Wanderer attracted a lot of attention: used as a source of inspiration for numerous works since and is not just well-known among art historians.

The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog is more than 200 years old and still has an impact on viewers today, reminding us of age-old truths that appear to go beyond being human. In fact, critics claim that the subject looking upon a canvas of open possibility, ready to make a choice and find what awaits him, appeals to modern viewers. The Wanderer has appeared on the cover of numerous books, T-shirts, CDs, and coffee mugs. Friedrich’s paintings were even used as propaganda and tokens of appreciation for the German Adolf Hitler. Friedrich’s reputation as an artist was tarnished by this association, but the art world eventually restore it and make it one of the most talked about paintings in history.