Friedrich is universally acclaimed as Germany's greatest Romantic painter, but his pictures are rarely seen outside his native country. This fine canvas, executed at midcareer, is the first of his works to enter the Museum's collection. It is the second of three memorable paintings that show pensive figures contemplating the rising moon; the other variants are at Dresden and Berlin.

In this version Friedrich depicted himself—wearing the old-fashioned garb adopted by those opposed to Metternich's policies—with his favorite student, August Heinrich (1794–1822), who had recently died while on his way to Italy. It is thought that Friedrich painted this picture in remembrance of their evening walks together in the mountains outside Dresden. In the vast literature on Friedrich, the fir, the gnarled oak, and the rising moon have been given numerous interpretations, rooted in Christianity or, alternatively, in paganism.