Friedrich, A Walk at Dusk

Art History

Romanticism in Germany

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Friedrich, A Walk at Dusk

Friedrich, A Walk at Dusk Caspar David Friedrich, A Walk at Dusk, oil on canvas, ca. 1830-1835 (The Getty Center, Los Angeles) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

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Friedrich, A Walk at Dusk

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We are looking at Caspar David Friedrich,
German romantic artist.
It is a painting called “A walk at dusk”
and dates to somewhere between 1830 and 1835.
And it is supposed to be late Friedrich.
-Yes, it’s really late one. - And it’s small.
It's only maybe 16 inches...
Right 18 inches, something like that.
It's small.
And it’s so recognizably Friedrich, you know,
it’s got this alone figure, a kind of twilight or dusk.
Deep dusk.
And of course it’s got a kind of neolithic tomb or
megalithic, or something that’s got a large stone
in a kind of coffin shape.
A small figure of a man standing nearby,
looking at the tomb.
Obviously contemplating mortality
and the meaning of life
and whether there is life after death.
The way is that we could transcend the human lifetime in a number of different ways, right?
Because you’ve got this figure himself
contemplating perhaps his own death.
I think the museum is suggesting
that this might be Friedrich.
But then you’ve got this,
he’s contemplating death
in front of ancient tomb.
The tomb is probably 4000 years old and you know,
what is death mean in that kind of historic timeframe.
And then you’ve got nature itself.
In a kind of wintery landscape, I think, right?
- With the bare trees - Yeah trees are …leaves…
At least in the foreground.
So you’ve got this notion of a kind of
renewal in nature,
and then you’ve got the sky.
And actually the whole thing is quite beautiful.
Greish, green...
You really indulge in a sort of somber, quite, contemplative state.
But you can think of it as
a kind of modern, religious painting?
- Absolutely. - Of a contemplation of the meaning,
- By the way, I think we’re suppose to identify with that figure - I think we step light into...
- Either at that moment, in nature, alone, very quiet, at dusk... - And in a way ...
…and end of life, in the way of metaphor.
So do you think that that’s the way Friedrich wanted his paintings just to be approached?
-Quietly, perhaps individually? -I think so, yeah.
I’m not sure that the museum setting
is exactly right for it.
With that sort of noise of people in the public.
-Some these paintings are actually quite alter like. -That's true.
So the contemplative and spiritual.
And I think it’s often the quality of that and we certainly see that here.
And then we’ve got the sort of offside and it’s really interesting kind of composition
because you’ve got the small man placed in the diminished scale
in nature, especially against the mass of that rock.
- You’ve got this trees grow up. - Up from the rock almost. -That's right.
And then of course you’ve got an image of the moon and a couple of stars or
planets that may be just becoming visible
as the night darkens.
It’s really, it’s quiet, it’s beautiful,
and it’s this moment in history when
this tremendous, romantic moment
when I think artists are looking for new ways of representing the spiritual.
Right, and what by romantic we don’t mean like
the normal usage of our way of using romantic.
No, no, no. Not in terms of love.
But in something more emotional,
something more expressive.
The really privilegous human emotions,
I think that’s exactly right.

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