Exhibition Tour—Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature

Join Alison Hokanson, Curator in the Department of European Paintings, and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, Assistant Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints, along with Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, to virtually explore Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature.

Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) reimagined European landscape painting by portraying nature as a setting for profound spiritual and emotional encounters. Working in the vanguard of the German Romantic movement, which championed a radical new understanding of the bond between nature and the inner self, Friedrich developed pictorial subjects and strategies that emphasize the individuality, intimacy, open-endedness, and complexity of our responses to the natural world. The vision of the landscape that unfolds in his art—meditative, mysterious, and full of wonder—is still vital today.

Learn more about the exhibition here.

Video produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and SandenWolff, Inc.

Production credits:

Managing Producers: Kate Farrell
Senior Producer: Melissa Bell
Production Coordinator: Lela Jenkins
Director/Camera: Jonathan Sanden
Interviewer/Story Editor: Rachel Wolff
Camera: Noah Therrien, Nate Reininga
Editor Hannah Kaylor, Jonathan Sanden
Music: Courtesy of Jamendo

Special thanks to:

Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director and CEO
Alison Hokanson, Curator, Department of European Paintings
Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, Assistant Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints



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Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich  German, Oil on canvas
Caspar David Friedrich
ca. 1817
Two Men Contemplating the Moon, Caspar David Friedrich  German, Oil on canvas
Caspar David Friedrich
ca. 1825–30