Sunset (Friedrich)

Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

Sunset

Artist| Caspar David Friedrich
Year| 1830-1835
Medium| oil on canvas
Dimensions| 25 cm × 31 cm (9.8 in × 12 in)
Location| Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Sunset or Brothers is an 1830-1835 oil on canvas painting by Caspar David Friedrich, now in the Hermitage Museum, in St Petersburg, Russia.[1][2][3]

## Description and analysis

[edit]

The painting depicts two men looking at a seascape during sunset. In this work, as in many others, Friedrich paints the figures seen from behind, so that they are seen contemplating the sea, from the viewers point of view.

The two wayfarers are both dressed in a similar traditional German costume, they also appear similar, representing the common experience that they are living. At the end of their journey, they observe, enraptured and motionless, the nature and the deep space that is visible before their eyes. Their image constitutes, in the painting, the element of union between the earth, the sea and the sky.

In the painting, the characters are depicted immersed in the contemplation of the landscape towards both are turned and that interesses them. However, it is a landscape that is shown to their gaze but that, at least in their earthly dimension, they can only admire without physically reaching it. The path they have walked, visible on the right of the painting, ends in fact at the point where they have stopped.

The work therefore suggests a great sense of melancholy, however the entire composition and, in particular, the light of twilight also suggest the possibility of an afterlife, of a fusion of man with nature.[4][5][6]

## See also

[edit]

* List of works by Caspar David Friedrich

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Catalogue entry".
2. ^ (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Francesca Castria, Anna Wieczorek-Niebielska (translator): Malarstwo Nowoczesne. Od romantyzmu do awangardy XX wieku. Warszawa: Arkady, 2001, s. 48. ISBN 83-213-4110-1.
3. ^ (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Agnieszka Majewska (translator): Wielki słownik malarzy. Tom II. Warszawa: HPS, 2006, s. 50. ISBN 978-83-60688-16-8
4. ^ "Catalogue entry".
5. ^ (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Francesca Castria, Anna Wieczorek-Niebielska (translator): Malarstwo Nowoczesne. Od romantyzmu do awangardy XX wieku. Warszawa: Arkady, 2001, s. 48. ISBN 83-213-4110-1.
6. ^ (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Agnieszka Majewska (translator): Wielki słownik malarzy. Tom II. Warszawa: HPS, 2006, s. 50. ISBN 978-83-60688-16-8

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Evening landscape with two men at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

Caspar David Friedrich

List of works

Paintings|

* Cairn in Snow (1807)
* Cross in the Mountains (1808)
* The Monk by the Sea (1808–1810)
* The Abbey in the Oakwood (1809–10)
* Mountain Landscape with Rainbow (1809–10)
* Morning on the Riesengebirge (1810–11)
* The Tombs of the Old Heroes (1812)
* Neubrandenburg (c. 1816)
* Two Men by the Sea (1817)
* The Gazebo (1818)
* Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)
* Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818)
* Seaside by Moonlight (1818)
* The Port of Greifswald (1818–1820)
* Two Men Contemplating the Moon; Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon (1820s)
* Evening (1821)
* River Bank in Fog (1821)
* The Lonely Tree (1822)
* Moonrise by the Sea (1822)
* The Tree of Crows (1822)
* Woman at a Window (1822)
* Hutten's Grave (1823)
* The Sea of Ice (1823–24)
* The Watzmann (1824–25)
* Cabin in the Snow (1827)
* Ships in Harbour, Evening (1828)
* The Temple of Juno in Agrigento (1828–1830)
* The Great Enclosure (1831)
* Ruins of Eldena Abbey in the Riesengebirge (1830–1834)
* Neubrandenburg Burning (1830–1835)
* Sunset (1830–1835)
* The Stages of Life (1835)

Prints|

* The Woman with the Spider's Web (1803)
* Woman with a Raven at an Abyss (c. 1803)
* Boy Sleeping on a Grave (c. 1803)

Related|

* Caspar David Friedrich in his Studio (1811/1819 paintings)
* Boundaries of Time: Caspar David Friedrich (1986 film)
* The Magic of Silence (2023 biography)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template