Shop art print and framed art Monk by the sea by Caspar David Friedrich

The Monk by the Sea (German: Der Mönch am Meer) is a painting by the German painter Caspar David Friedrich, produced around 1808-1810 and exhibited at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. A man, dressed in a large habit, contemplates the sea. The figure, described as a monk according to the painting's title, has his back to the viewer. Above a dark sea, a grey sky lightening in the upper part occupies three quarters of the image. Recent studies have indicated that initially two small boats were painted on the horizon, but that they were later hidden. The work was painted between 1808 and 1810 in Dresden and was first exhibited with the painting Abbey in an Oak Forest at the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1810. At Friedrich's request, The Monk by the Sea was hung above The Abbey in an Oak Forest. In this painting, Friedrich broke with the tradition of landscape painting. The realms of sea, beach and sky are seamless: the classic separation is absent, and the viewer is no longer guided through the painting. The delimitation of the image suggested to Heinrich von Kleist the following remark: "It's as if one's eyelids had been cut off". This painting has influenced many artists right up to the 21st century, as much for the composition of the picture as for the power of nature and the confrontation with anguish and death. A clear Friedrich influence can be seen in the seascapes of his friend Carl Gustav Carus. In the nineteenth century, James Abbott McNeill Whistler's Trouville and [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the romanticism style.

 

Find the full description of Monk by the sea by Caspar David Friedrich on Wikipedia.