Audio Guide

English
Person in dark coat stands on a rocky peak, viewing a misty landscape with mountains and clouds. Text at the top reads: "CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH THE SOUL OF NATURE.
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Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature

Hear new perspectives on Friedrich’s life and work.
This tour runs approximately 40 minutes.

370. Introduction

Welcome to Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature

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NARRATOR: Welcome to Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature. This is the first comprehensive exhibition in the United States dedicated to the work of this great German Romantic landscape painter.

ALISON HOKANSON: At the core of Romanticism is this celebration of the individual self with the capacity to reflect and to grow and to change. That understanding of how we relate to the rest of the world does have a beginning, and it's in the time and moment when Friedrich is working.

ANDREA WULF: The self ruled the world not kings or queens anymore. And that's something that then becomes very important for the Romantics who put the self really at center stage.

This is a time when steam engines are beginning to increase productivity. This is a time when clocks, the tick tock tick of a clock, suddenly divides your day, not sun and moon anymore. So, this is an increasingly mechanical world. And the young romantics are really turning against this kind of disenchantment.

JORDAN B. COOPER: There is this emphasis on feeling or experience here. There is also this focus on the experience of the sublime.

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON: I do think that's one thing that Friedrich was trying to reach toward, to get to what the sublime feels like.

MARIE HOWE: Whenever we say nature, we put ourselves outside it. And we are not, we are nature.

NARRATOR: In each gallery, you will find one or two tour stops, each delving into themes present in Friedrich’s life and work. You’ll hear from artists, writers, scholars, and more.

We invite you to enjoy the exhibition at your own pace as you listen along.

JOANNA SHEERS SEIDENSTEIN: I hope that people let their mind wander. Friedrich’s all about wandering and his pictures, they’re just so contemplative. It allows for this really deep interior experience. His work speaks to the soul.

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Music: Liszt, Consolations, S. 172: No. 3, Lento placido, performed by Constantin Stephan (piano) is licensed under CC-BY-4.0

    Playlist

  1. 370. Introduction
  2. 371. Forging his Path (Self Portrait, 1800)
  3. 372. Nature and Faith (The Cross in the Mountains, 1806)
  4. 373. Monk by the Sea, 1808–10
  5. 374. Alone Together (Two Men Contemplating the Moon, ca. 1825–30)
  6. 375. Home and Away (Moonrise over the Sea, 1822)
  7. 376. Nature’s Cycles (Castle Ruins at Teplitz, 1828)
  8. 377. Mountain Time (The Watzmann, 1824–25)
  9. 378. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, ca. 1817
  10. 379. Clarity of Vision (The Stages of Life, ca. 1834)
  11. 380. The Great Beyond