Statue of the Madonna in the Mountains  1804

by Caspar David Friedrich

This vast landscape by one of the central figures of German Romanticism dates from Caspar David Friedrich’s early years in Dresden, where he settled after studying in Copenhagen (then considered the artistic center of northern Europe). Subtly graded shades of gray wash evoke the gloomy, overcast days so common in Germany in November, when this image was created. The drawin...
Size: 
244 × 382 mm
Medium: 
Brush and black ink and gray wash, with graphite, on cream wove paper
Credit: 
Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago