Caspar David Friedich, Wonderer Among the Fog, c. 1817
All eyes are on the Metropolitan Museum's red carpet this evening as their annual Gala showcases the most creative and often outrageous couture on the face of the planet. This year's Costume Institute's exhibition is called
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. You may not be present, but you can watch the event from the comfort of your home, live-streamed from the
Met's website, beginning at 6 pm ET.
When the Met reopens tomorrow, only members will have access to the show. The general public can visit Superfine from May 10 through October 26, 2025.
However, for the rest of this week you are more than welcome to visit the unique experience of
Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul in Nature, located in the galleries near the Greek vases, closing this Sunday, May 11th at 5:30 pm. I have visited twice and intend to go once more before this rare CDF opportunity fades away.
Caspar David Friedich, Self-Portrait, 1800
Georg Friedrich Kersting, Caspar David Friedrich in His Studio, 1811
I discovered Caspar David Friedrich in Albert Boime's graduate course on 19th century art almost 50 years ago His theme for this segment of the curriculum was melancholy and the moon. We studied numerous artworks that featured a full moon or a phase of the moon, which Prof. Boime described as the way people understood their "passions" (what we call our moods or psychology). I am writing this post on Monday. the Moon's Day or Luna's Day, the second day of the week according to most calendars. The word "lunatic" comes from the notion that the moon brings about the darker side of our nature. We fear strange and dangerous circumstances might arrive during a full moon. People in CDF's day thought melancholy was triggered by the phases of the moon.
Caspar David Friedrich, Moonrise over the Sea, 1822
In these paintings, we see CDF's meditation on the moon's attributes - its dreaminess, its radiance, and its mystery. The moon may seem ominous, proof of Mother Nature's power over us, her most vulnerable creations. Romanticism emphasized the overwhelming influence of Mother Nature on the environment and the source of our individual natures, our personalities, and the lack of control we might have over both of them. The previous movement, The Age of Reason (aka The Enlightenment) believed that studying and adhering to God's Laws would make our existence better and better. Case in point: The US Constitution. Well, the Romantics decided that humans could not wrangle Mother Nature. We're unpredictable and weird. Hence the popularity of the Gothic novels Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (1818), Dracula by Bram Stroker (1897), and the many creepy short stories by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).
Caspar David Friedich,, Two Men Contemplate the Moon, 1825-30 (Met Museum)
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Caspar David Friedrich, Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon, 1824
My favorite CDF in this exhibition is
Monk By the Sea, where a tiny spiritual being stands alone within the vastness of nature laid out before him. There is the open sea and the limitless sky. His puniness seems to represent us, minuscule and fragile within a universe far greater than we can ever imagine, even today with all our sophisticated telescopes. And yet, as the curators have insisted in
their tour, CDF's work returns again and again to his meditation on nature as he experienced it. Through his eyes and dedication to details, we feel "the sublime," a sense of greatness, extraordinary beauty, and occasionally, terror or dread in the face of it all.
Caspar David Friedrich, Monk By the Sea, 1808-10
The key to understanding and appreciating Caspar David Friedrich's paintings and drawings is to accept the invitation from the artist to become his companion within a specific landscape. He is sharing his viewpoint and his feelings about what he sees The figures whose backs are toward the viewer indicate you belong to this space where they stand or sit gazing at nature in awe, meditating on the capriciousness of Mother Nature herself. These Rückenfiguren have their backs toward us as if we were standing behind them or arriving on the scene to stand right next to them on the bluff or at the window to bear witness with them. Together we commune as only mere mortals can in the presence of eternity.
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at a Window, 1822
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman Before the Rise or Setting Sun, 1818-24
Unfortunately, my favorite CDF is not in the show, which caused a great deal of melancholy once I realized the curators did not include this magnificent work of art. Sea of Ice is the star of my lesson on Romanticism. In the wake of the cool, controlled certainty of the Neoclassical movement, we see Mother Nature triumph over the temerity of humans invading her most challenging region, the Arctic. Its original name was The Polar Sea. We can imagine the icy wind, subzero temperature, and terrifying fear visited upon those who perished in this tragic scene. It is monstrous and arrestingly beautiful at the same time - arguably, Caspar David Friedrich's most successful expression of the Sublime.
Caspar David Friedrich, Sea of Ice, 1823-4
(not in this exhibition)
So - hurry to the Met before the Caspar David Friedrich exhibition closes on Sunday, May 11th.
And, please save some energy for the new Sargent in Paris (closing on August 3rd).
Happy Spring-Summer Art Season - it's only just begun . . . .
Beth
Beth Gersh-Nesic, PhD
Director/Owner
New York Arts Exchange, LLC
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