These two figures are seen from behind so that the viewer may participate in their communion with nature. One has often been identified as Friedrich himself, and the other is Friedrich's disciple August Heinrich (1794–1822). Fascination with the moon ran high among the German Romantics, who regarded the motif as an object of pious contemplation. This is the third version of one of Friedrich’s most famous compositions, the first of which was painted during Heinrich’s lifetime (1819; Albertinum, Dresden) and the second soon after his death (ca. 1824; Nationalgalerie, Berlin).
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Title:Two Men Contemplating the Moon
Artist:Caspar David Friedrich (German, Greifswald 1774–1840 Dresden)
Date:ca. 1825–30
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:13 3/4 x 17 1/4 in. (34.9 x 43.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Wrightsman Fund, 2000
Object Number:2000.51
Dr. Otto Friedrich Rosenberg, Dresden (by 1840–d. 1850; acquired from the artist in exchange for medical attention); his daughter, Theophila Minna Rosenberg, Dresden (by 1850–presumably until d. 1882); by descent through the Rosenberg family, Wuppertal-Barmen, later Hamburg, to Gottfried Spiegler, Glinde (until 1999; sale, Christie's, London, October 7, 1999, no. 10, for £771,500 [approx. $1,277,000] to Artemis); [Artemis Fine Arts, New York, 1999–2000; sold to The Met]
Dortmund. Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. "Caspar David Friedrich: Winterlandschaften," 1990, no. 37 (as "Zwei Männer in Betrachtung des Mondes," lent by a private collector, Hamburg).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers," September 11–November 11, 2001, no. 3 (as "Two Men Contemplating the Moon [Zwei Männer in Betrachtung des Mondes"]).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009, online catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography," July 3–September 22, 2019, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 44).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature," February 8–May 11, 2025, no. 42.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.
Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to Dresden Gëmaldegalerie. September 26, 1840 [published in Christie's sale cat., October 7, 1999, p. 19], remarks that Friedrich made several copies of the Dresden picture.
Werner Sumowski. Caspar David Friedrich-Studien. Wiesbaden, 1970, p. 179, fig. 395, mentions it as a replica of the Dresden picture; as in a private collection of a family in Wuppertal-Barmen to whose ancestor, Fritz von Rosenberg, Friedrich gave it.
Helmut Börsch-Supan and Karl Wilhelm Jähnig. Caspar David Friedrich: Gemälde, Druckgraphik und bildmässige Zeichnungen. Munich, 1973, pp. 356, 415–16, no. 366, ill. (color), as "Zwei Manner in Betrachtung des Mondes" in a private collection at Wuppertal-Barmen.
Hans-Werner Grohn in Werner Hofmann. Caspar David Friedrich, 1774–1840. Exh. cat., Hamburger Kunsthalle. Munich, 1974, p. 227.
Helmut Börsch-Supan. L'opera completa di Friedrich. Milan, 1976, p. 105, no. 182, ill., calls it "Due uomini davanti alla luna" and dates it about 1829; as in a private collection in Wuppertal-Barmen; states that, according to family tradition, Friedrich gave it to his doctor Fritz von Rosenberg.
John Leighton inCaspar David Friedrich: Winter Landscape. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 1990, pp. 41, 70 [German ed., Heidelberg, pp. 136, 138, no. 37, ill. (color)].
Gary Tinterow and Sabine Rewald in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1999–2000." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 58 (Fall 2000), p. 36, ill. (color), call it the second of three works on this theme and note that in this version Friedrich is thought to have painted it in remembrance of his favorite student, August Heinrich, who had died recently; remark that the images of the fir, gnarled oak, and rising moon are subject to interpretation.
Sabine Rewald. Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2001, pp. 7, 18–19, 31, 33–35, no. 3, ill. (color, overall and detail on cover), calls it "Two Men Contemplating the Moon (Zwei Männer in Betrachtung des Mondes)," dates it about 1830, one of two versions Friedrich painted of the work in Dresden and the one more like the original; remarks that it retains the luminosity of the Berlin version, yet reintroduces the complicity between the figures of the Dresden painting; notes that there is no underdrawing.
Roberta Smith. "The Primly Austere, and Occasionally Dark Side of the Moon." New York Times (September 14, 2001), p. E30, ill.
Philippe de Montebello in Sabine Rewald. Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2001, p. 6.
Kasper Monrad in Sabine Rewald. Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2001, pp. 23, 27.
Sabine Rewald inThe Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, pp. 342–45, no. 96, ill. (color).
Sabine Rewald inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 17, 249, no. 15, ill. (color and black and white).
Jens Christian Jensen. "Replik oder Kopie: Die Frage der Eigenhändigkeit im Werk Caspar David Friedrichs am Beispiel des 'Kreuz an der Ostsee'." Artibus et Historiae 28 (2007), pp. 141, 143, 154 n. 8, incorrectly states the date of its acquisition by The Met as 2001.
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, pp. 430, 443, no. 328, ill. pp. 340, 430 (color).
Mia Fineman inApollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, pp. 74, 176, 183 n. 8, colorpl. 44, ill. p. 6 (color detail).
Knut Ljøgodt. Peder Balke, Sublime North: Works from the Gundersen Collection. Milan, 2020, p. 54, fig. XXII (color).
There are multiple versions of this composition in addition to The Met's picture:
Two Men Contemplating the Moon, 1819. Oil on canvas, 13 3⁄4 × 17 1⁄2 in. (35 × 44.5 cm), Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Friedrich gave this version (the first) to his friend and upstairs neighbor, Johan Christian Dahl, in exchange for one of Dahl’s works. Dahl kept the picture until Friedrich’s death, when he sold it to the museum in Dresden.
Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon, ca. 1824. Oil on canvas, 13 3⁄8 × 17 3⁄8 in. (34 × 44 cm), Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. A second version, previously dated 1830–35 by Börsch-Supan.
Two Men Contemplating the Moon, 1830–35. Oil on canvas, 13 3⁄8 × 17 in. (34 × 43 cm). A fourth version. Galerie Hans, Hamburg (in 2001).
There are also two related drawings:
Studies of Two Trees, April 25, 1809. Pencil, 12 1⁄2 × 10 1⁄8 in. (31.7 × 25.7 cm). Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Bare Oak Tree, May 3, 1809. Pencil, 14 1⁄8 × 10 3⁄8 in. (36 × 25.9 cm). Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.
This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Eduard Gaertner (German, Berlin 1801–1877 Zechlin)
1831
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