Arctic Shipwreck - Caspar David Friedrich - Framed Print - 12"H x 16"W

Arctic Shipwreck - Caspar David Friedrich - Framed Print - 12"H x 16"W

Caspar David Friedrich German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins.

He came of age during a period when, across Europe, a growing disillusionment with materialistic society was giving rise to a new appreciation of spirituality.

The early 20th century brought a renewed appreciation of his work, by the 1920s his paintings had been discovered by the Expressionists, and in the 1930s and early 1940s Surrealists and Existentialists frequently drew ideas from his work. The rise of Nazism in the early 1930s again saw a resurgence in Friedrich's popularity, but this was followed by a sharp decline as his paintings were, by association with the Nazi movement, interpreted as having a nationalistic aspect.

It was not until the late 1970s that Friedrich regained his reputation as an icon of the German Romantic movement and a painter of international importance.