Kiefer based this watercolor on photographs he had taken near the barren but beautiful coast of what was then Yugoslavia and titled it after a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). Goethe's "Wanderers Nachtlied" (Wanderer's Nightsong), well known in Germany, begins, "On every mountain peak / there is peace." The artist said he was attracted to the poem because "it makes a connection between human beings and landscape and means something more important, that you . . . will enter into the same cycle of life and death as nature."
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Inscription: Inscribed (along the mountain, in watercolor): Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh! In allen Wipfeln spürest Du kaum einen Hauch! [On every mountain peak there is peace! In all the treetops you detect scarcely a breeze!]; inscribed bottom center in watercolor: für Julia [for Julia]
private collection (1971–83; sold in 1983 to d'Offay); [Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, 1983–95; sold to MMA]
Kunstverein Freiburg. "Anselm Kiefer: Aquarelle 1970–1980," September 18–October 18, 1981, unnumbered cat. (as " Über allen Gipfel ist Ruh").
London. Anthony d'Offay Gallery. "Anselm Kiefer: Watercolours, 1970–1982," May 24–July 9, 1983, no. 4 (as "Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh [There is peace upon every mountain peak]").
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. "Anselm Kiefer," March 24–May 5, 1984, no. 68 (as "There is peace upon every mountain peak").
ARC/Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. "Anselm Kiefer," May 11–June 21, 1984, no. 68.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem. "Anselm Kiefer," July 31–September 30, 1984, no. 68.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anselm Kiefer: Works on Paper, 1969–1993," December 15, 1998–March 21, 1999, no. 8.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscapes by Klee and Kiefer," January 19–September 30, 2001, no catalogue.
Madrid. Fundación Juan March. "The Abstraction of Landscape: From Northern Romanticism to Abstract Expressionism," October 4, 2007–January 13, 2008.
New York. Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery at the Metropolitan Opera. "From the Met to the Met: Anselm Kiefer and Wagner's Ring," February 17–May 9, 2009, not in brochure.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Broken Flowers and Grass: Nature and Landscape in the Drawings of Anselm Kiefer," March 24–August 2, 2009, no. catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Land Marks," April 30–August 25, 2013, no catalogue.
R. H. Fuchs. Anselm Kiefer: Aquarelle 1970–1980. Exh. cat., Kunstverein Freiburg. Freiburg, 1981, unpaginated.
Anne Seymour. Anselm Kiefer: Watercolours 1970–1982. Exh. cat., Anthony d'Offay Gallery. London, 1983, unpaginated, no. 4, ill. (color).
Mark Rosenthal. Anselm Kiefer. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago and Philadelphia, 1987, p. 32, fig. 26.
Nan Rosenthal in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1994–1995." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 53 (Fall 1995), p. 68.
Nan Rosenthal. Anselm Kiefer: Works on Paper in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, p. 31, no. 8, ill. p. 32 (color).
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