Eventful afterlife of a visionary genius

Amelia Butler-Gallie

IN SEPTEMBER, TWO CITIES IN GERMANY took part in a peculiar bet. Greifswald, a once-bustling trade centre on the Baltic coast, laid down the gauntlet to Dresden: which of their respective marketplaces could gather the most people together dressed in Romantic-era costumes? The occasion for this weird wager was Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th birthday. Friedrich, the celebrated landscape painter whose work has become synonymous with German identity and an otherworldly Romanticism, was born in 1774 in Greifswald, while Dresden later became his adopted home. Between these two places, he found inspiration in the surrounding forests, harbours, seascapes and mountains, inhaling nature to “exhale it again as art”. “Cake for Caspar” may be a hit in Greifswald and Dresden today but it is striking to remember that the paintings now considered Friedrich’s…

You're reading a preview of

The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December/January 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.