As
always, Friedrich begins with the world of close observation--the Gothic
ruins are those of the Chritian monastery at Eldena, which he often sketched;
the knarled, leafless oak trees were as much a winter commonplace in northern
Europe as the dense and chilling fogs. But the casual data of nature have
now been frozen in a heraldic symbol, fixed immutably upon a symmetrical,
cruciform skeleton of stark vertical and horizontal axes.
Perhaps more successfully than any other Romantic painter, Friedrich
can make us feel the divinity inherent in nature.
Quoted from 19th Century Art, page 87.
by Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774-1840)
Abbey in an Oak Forest, 1809-1810
Oil on Canvas, 44 x 68.5 in.
From Schloss Charlottenburg, (West) Berlin
Scanned and quoted from 19th Century Art
by Robert Rosenblum
Harry N. Abrams, Inc, New York
1984
See also The Wanderer
and Cloister Graveyard in the Snow.