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Lot Essay
A seated man is looking with a telescope towards the sea on a sandy hill, with a jetty and white chalk cliffs in the distance. This large and poetic drawing is a view of Möen, an island in south-eastern Denmark, which was and still is a popular destination for tourists with its imposing white chalk cliffs, beautiful countryside and sandy beaches. It is just north of the German island of Rügen, also famous for its white chalk cliffs and austere landscapes, which Friedrich visited many times and which supplied the artist with the subjects of some of his most admired paintings and drawings.
Although not in the catalogue, the drawing was part of the 1806 exhibition at the Academie der Künste in Dresden as it was described in at least two reviews, one anonymous in the Journal des Luxus und Der Modern, the other signed by a Bruneck in the Dresdener Abendzeitung. We reproduce them both:
'Auch an die mittlere Abtheilung des Saals stösst ein dergleichen Hinterzimmer, in dem sich aber gewöhnlich nur Schülerarbeiten befunden. Ich würde dessen weiter nicht erwähnen, wenn nicht zwei von Hrn Friedrich ganz spät nachgebrachte Landschaften, die nicht übersehen werden dürfen, aus Mangel des Raums hier auf Staffeleien aufgestellt worden wären. Beiden stellen Ansichten, der durch ihre Kreidebirge bekannten dänischen Insel Möna vor. Auf der ersten erblicken wir einen natürlichen Hafen, der rechter Hand von einer fortsetzenden Kette hoher Kreidefelsen gebildet wird. Am Fusse derselben läuft ein Weg hinab, den das, den übrigen Theil der Landscahft einnehmende Meer bespült. Im Vordergrunde sitzt auf einer stehenden Bank ein Reisender, der mit dem Fernrohre in die wite See hinausschaut.'
Furthermore, leading off the hall one finds a back room, where usually only students' works are found. I would not mention this, except that there are two of Mr. Friedrich's very recent landscapes, which for lack of space were placed here on easels, and which should not be overlooked. Both show views of the Danish isle of Möen, famous for its white chalk foothills. In the first we see a natural harbor, formed by a ridge of high chalk cliffs which continues on the right hand side. At the foot of the cliffs a path runs down to the sea which covers the rest of the landscape. In the foreground, sitting on a bench, is a traveller who looks out with the telescope to the open sea.
Journal des Luxus und der Modern
'Weit mehr hat sich mein Auge an dem zweiten geweidet: hinter einem niedrigen Vordergrunde verlaufen sich rechts himmelanstrebende nackte Felsen in die Ferne, zur linken spiegelt sich wieder das Meer. Ganz im vordergrunde und fast im Mittelpunkte des Gemäldes sitzt eine Figur, einsam und verloren, und schaut mit einem Fernrohre weit in die todte See hinaus. Die Vegetation der Felsen ist unglaublich arm, und deshalb war es umso schwerer, die weissen kahlen Massens gut anzubringen. Der dunklere Himmel und das düster stille Meer, das in gelinden Wellen an die Küste spült, haben auch hier den Kontrast gefördet, und je länger man vor dem Gemälde steht, je stiller wird es um uns, bis man am Ende das leise Rauschen der Wellen zu vernehmen glaubt, und das Verlangen theilt mit der Figur, die so unablässig in das Weltmeer hinaus blickt.'
My eyes feasted far more on the second: beyond a low pass in the right foreground are bare rocks reaching heavenwards in the distance; to the left we again have the sea. Right in the foreground and almost in the center of the painting is a figure, sitting lonely and lost, looking with a telescope far out into the bare sea. The vegetation on the rocks is incredibly sparse, and therefore it was even more difficult to accurately represent the bare white cliffs. The dark sky and the bleak silent sea that washes in gentle waves around the coast also heighten the contrast, and the longer you stand in front of the painting, the quieter it becomes, until finally we come to believe that we can hear the waves and we start to share the desire of the figure that looks so incessantly out to the ocean beyond.
Bruneck, Dresdener Abendzeitung
At the Dresden exhibition this View of Möen was shown alongside another drawing which is also described in the two reviews and which can be identified with the Eastern Coast of Rügen Island with shepherd now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (C. Grummt, op. cit., no. 515). Both drawings have the same dimensions and are executed in the same technique. They were probably conceived as pendants by Friedrich although, as often with the artist, the interrelationship between the two pieces is not quite obvious. Friedrich showed three other important drawings at the 1806 Dresden exhibition, the famous View of Arcona and View from the artist's studio respectively in the Albertina and in the Belvedere in Vienna (C. Grummt, op. cit., nos. 419-20) and a Moonlight now untraced. These drawings belong to a group of sizeable sepia drawings, all dating from 1803 to 1806, that Friedrich composed before taking up oil paints in 1807. These works' large sizes and independent compositions give them nearly the status of paintings within Friedrich's oeuvre and brought the artist early fame.
Friedrich spent the summers of 1801 and 1802 on Rügen and it is probably during one of these sojourns that he visited Möen. While on Rügen he made numerous life studies in pencil which served as starting points for his large sepia drawings. No study is known for the present drawing but the composition of the sheet now in the Metropolitan Museum is based on a sketch dated 18 June 1801 (C. Grummt, op. cit., no. 300). The present drawing and that in New York are dated to 1805-06 by Helmut Börsch-Supan and to 1806 by Christina Grummt.
In both the New York drawing and the present sheet a solitary figure is seen in the centre of an immense and rather austere landscape. They appear as precursors of Friedrich's pensive figures seen from the back, seemingly in communion with nature, which would not appear in his painted oeuvre until ten years later. Helmut Börsch-Supan (op. cit., p. 22) observed that this drawing is Friedrich's first work where a figure is looking into the infinite distance. This theme of man's longing and desire for infinity - here intensified by placing the object of the man's scrutiny outside the image - would become recurrent in his later paintings, as for example in The Wayfarer above a sea of fog, 1818, in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Although not in the catalogue, the drawing was part of the 1806 exhibition at the Academie der Künste in Dresden as it was described in at least two reviews, one anonymous in the Journal des Luxus und Der Modern, the other signed by a Bruneck in the Dresdener Abendzeitung. We reproduce them both:
'Auch an die mittlere Abtheilung des Saals stösst ein dergleichen Hinterzimmer, in dem sich aber gewöhnlich nur Schülerarbeiten befunden. Ich würde dessen weiter nicht erwähnen, wenn nicht zwei von Hrn Friedrich ganz spät nachgebrachte Landschaften, die nicht übersehen werden dürfen, aus Mangel des Raums hier auf Staffeleien aufgestellt worden wären. Beiden stellen Ansichten, der durch ihre Kreidebirge bekannten dänischen Insel Möna vor. Auf der ersten erblicken wir einen natürlichen Hafen, der rechter Hand von einer fortsetzenden Kette hoher Kreidefelsen gebildet wird. Am Fusse derselben läuft ein Weg hinab, den das, den übrigen Theil der Landscahft einnehmende Meer bespült. Im Vordergrunde sitzt auf einer stehenden Bank ein Reisender, der mit dem Fernrohre in die wite See hinausschaut.'
Furthermore, leading off the hall one finds a back room, where usually only students' works are found. I would not mention this, except that there are two of Mr. Friedrich's very recent landscapes, which for lack of space were placed here on easels, and which should not be overlooked. Both show views of the Danish isle of Möen, famous for its white chalk foothills. In the first we see a natural harbor, formed by a ridge of high chalk cliffs which continues on the right hand side. At the foot of the cliffs a path runs down to the sea which covers the rest of the landscape. In the foreground, sitting on a bench, is a traveller who looks out with the telescope to the open sea.
Journal des Luxus und der Modern
'Weit mehr hat sich mein Auge an dem zweiten geweidet: hinter einem niedrigen Vordergrunde verlaufen sich rechts himmelanstrebende nackte Felsen in die Ferne, zur linken spiegelt sich wieder das Meer. Ganz im vordergrunde und fast im Mittelpunkte des Gemäldes sitzt eine Figur, einsam und verloren, und schaut mit einem Fernrohre weit in die todte See hinaus. Die Vegetation der Felsen ist unglaublich arm, und deshalb war es umso schwerer, die weissen kahlen Massens gut anzubringen. Der dunklere Himmel und das düster stille Meer, das in gelinden Wellen an die Küste spült, haben auch hier den Kontrast gefördet, und je länger man vor dem Gemälde steht, je stiller wird es um uns, bis man am Ende das leise Rauschen der Wellen zu vernehmen glaubt, und das Verlangen theilt mit der Figur, die so unablässig in das Weltmeer hinaus blickt.'
My eyes feasted far more on the second: beyond a low pass in the right foreground are bare rocks reaching heavenwards in the distance; to the left we again have the sea. Right in the foreground and almost in the center of the painting is a figure, sitting lonely and lost, looking with a telescope far out into the bare sea. The vegetation on the rocks is incredibly sparse, and therefore it was even more difficult to accurately represent the bare white cliffs. The dark sky and the bleak silent sea that washes in gentle waves around the coast also heighten the contrast, and the longer you stand in front of the painting, the quieter it becomes, until finally we come to believe that we can hear the waves and we start to share the desire of the figure that looks so incessantly out to the ocean beyond.
Bruneck, Dresdener Abendzeitung
At the Dresden exhibition this View of Möen was shown alongside another drawing which is also described in the two reviews and which can be identified with the Eastern Coast of Rügen Island with shepherd now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (C. Grummt, op. cit., no. 515). Both drawings have the same dimensions and are executed in the same technique. They were probably conceived as pendants by Friedrich although, as often with the artist, the interrelationship between the two pieces is not quite obvious. Friedrich showed three other important drawings at the 1806 Dresden exhibition, the famous View of Arcona and View from the artist's studio respectively in the Albertina and in the Belvedere in Vienna (C. Grummt, op. cit., nos. 419-20) and a Moonlight now untraced. These drawings belong to a group of sizeable sepia drawings, all dating from 1803 to 1806, that Friedrich composed before taking up oil paints in 1807. These works' large sizes and independent compositions give them nearly the status of paintings within Friedrich's oeuvre and brought the artist early fame.
Friedrich spent the summers of 1801 and 1802 on Rügen and it is probably during one of these sojourns that he visited Möen. While on Rügen he made numerous life studies in pencil which served as starting points for his large sepia drawings. No study is known for the present drawing but the composition of the sheet now in the Metropolitan Museum is based on a sketch dated 18 June 1801 (C. Grummt, op. cit., no. 300). The present drawing and that in New York are dated to 1805-06 by Helmut Börsch-Supan and to 1806 by Christina Grummt.
In both the New York drawing and the present sheet a solitary figure is seen in the centre of an immense and rather austere landscape. They appear as precursors of Friedrich's pensive figures seen from the back, seemingly in communion with nature, which would not appear in his painted oeuvre until ten years later. Helmut Börsch-Supan (op. cit., p. 22) observed that this drawing is Friedrich's first work where a figure is looking into the infinite distance. This theme of man's longing and desire for infinity - here intensified by placing the object of the man's scrutiny outside the image - would become recurrent in his later paintings, as for example in The Wayfarer above a sea of fog, 1818, in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.