Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog

Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog is a painting by Caspar David Friedrich, a German Romantic artist, completed in 1818. It depicts a man standing on a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer, gazing out at a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog through which other ridges, trees, and mountains pierce, and which stretches out indefinitely into the distance.

It is regarded as one of the Romanticism movement's greatest and most emblematic compositions. The scene is frequently regarded as evoking the sublime, and the painting has been widely understood as an icon of self-reflection or contemplation of life's path. Friedrich used Rückenfigur (German: Rear-facing figure) frequently in his paintings; Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is possibly the most famous Rückenfigur in art due to its importance to the subject. The figure in the painting also displays Freiedrich's German liberal and nationalist feelings by donning an Altdeutsche ("Old German") attire, which was connected with the nationalist movement and was prohibited by the states of the German Confederation in 1819.

While Friedrich was well-liked in German and Russian circles, Wanderer over the Sea of Fog, and Friedrich's art in general, were not immediately recognized as masterpieces. Friedrich's renown grew in the early twentieth century, particularly throughout the 1970s; Wanderer became particularly famous, appearing in books and other works as an example of "popular art" as well as high culture. The artwork's provenance after its construction is uncertain, but it was on exhibit in the gallery of Wilhelm August Luz in Berlin in 1939, and it was acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany in 1970, where it has been ever since.

Author: Caspar David Friedrich