Before he took up painting in 1807, Caspar David Friedrich had already created some of the most fascinating landscape drawings of his time. This exceptionally large sheet from about 1805-6 is based on sketches made on the island of Rügen, in the Baltic Sea, not far from the artist’s birthplace. The austere island inspired some of Friedrich’s greatest works, in which he combined a close observation of nature with a pervasive romanticism. A solitary human figure contemplating the expanse of nature would be a recurring theme in his oeuvre.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Eastern Coast of Rügen Island with Shepherd
Artist:Caspar David Friedrich (German, Greifswald 1774–1840 Dresden)
Date:ca. 1805–6
Medium:Sepia colored ink, sepia colored wash, white gouache and graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions:24 1/4 x 39 inches (61.6 x 99 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Purchase, several members of The Chairman's Council Gifts and Fletcher Fund, and Promised Gift of Leon D. and Debra R. Black, 2002
Accession Number:2002.260
Schildener Collection, Greifswald; Dr. Johann Friedrich Bernhard Quistorp (German); President of the Senate Max Urlich (German), Nürnberg (later Munich); Weinmüller, 1952; Oettingen-Wallerstein (German), Castle Harburg, Germany; Vendor: Galerie Arnoldi-Livie (German)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," April 26–July 25, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 3–March 27, 2011.
Bruneck "Ueber die Dresdner Kunstausstellung" in Abend-Zeitung. Dresden, April 1806, p. 109.
"Dresdner Kunstausstellung 1806: zweiter Brief" in Journal des Luxus und der Moden. 21, Dresden, June 1806, pp. 339-40.
Henry Fuseli (as H. H. Füssli) Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. pt. 2, section 1, Zürich, 1806, pp. 393-94.
Johann Georg Meusel Teutsches Künstlerlexikon. 2nd ed. Lemgo, 1808, pp. 259, 260.
Otto Schmitt "Ein Skizzenbuch C.D. Friedrichs im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum" in Westdeutsches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte" Westdeutsches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte. vol. 11, 1939, p. 294.
Kurt Wilhelm-Kästner, Ludwig Rohling, Karl Friedrich Degener Caspar David Friedrich und seine Heimat. Berlin, 1940, p. 71.
Charlotte Margarethe de Prybram-Gladona Caspar David Friedrich. Paris, 1942, p. 72.
Sigrid Hinz Caspar David Friedrich als Zeichner. Ein Beitrag zur stilistischen Entwicklung und ihrer Bedeutung für die Datierung der Gemälde. PhD diss., 1966.
Wolf Stubbe "Erwerbungen der Graphischen Sammlung in den Jahren 1968 und 1969" in Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen" Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen. vol. 14-15, Hamburg, 1970, p. 278.
Werner Sumowski Caspar David Friedrich - Studien. Wiesbaden, 1970, pp. 145, 189, 19.
Helmut Börsch-Supan, Karl Wilhelm Jähning Caspar David Friedrich: Gemälde, Druckgraphik und bildmässige Zeichnungen. Munich, 1974 - 1975, cat. no. 133.
Hans H. Hofstätter Caspar David Friedrich: Das gesamte graphische Werk. Munich, 1974, p. 268, ill.
Carmen C. Bambach, Elizabeth E. Barker, Colta Ives, Nadine Orenstein, Michiel C. Plomp, Perrin Stein "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2002-2003." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 61, no. 2, Autumn 2003, p. 29, ill.
Christina Grummt Caspar David Friedrich: Die Zeichnungen. 2 vols., Munich, 2011, vol. 1, p. 27, and cat. no. 515, pp. 484-85, ill. p. 483 (bottom).
Armin Kunz "A new catalogue of Friedrich's drawings and watercolors (book review)". Burlington Magazine, vol. 154, February 2012, p. 111, no. 515.
Hellmut Bethe "Mitteilungen aus dem Pommerschen Landesmuseum." Baltische Nachrichten. NF 41, May 31, 2013, p. 341.
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