Caspar David Friedrich was a nineteenth century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation.
He was born on 5th September 1774 in Greifswald, Germany and died on 7th May 1840 in dresden, Germany. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins. His first major work “The Tetschen Altar” or “The Cross in the Mountains” (1807) was created when he was 34. It is an altarpiece panel commissioned by the Countess of Thun for her family’s chapel in Tetschen, Bohemia.
Friedrich was quoted as saying “the painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself”.
