In brilliant detail, Claude-Joseph Vernet captured the gorgeous weather and leisurely activities of a day by the sea. Fishermen clean the day's catch on a stone pier while several people chat nearby, one of them pointing toward the large ship in the bay. Meanwhile, a man sits and smokes his pipe, the tobacco glowing a bright red. A cumulus cloud, perhaps the remnant of a distant storm, towers to the left of the setting sun. Warm tones of yellow, orange, and red predominate, suggesting a hazy sunset after a bright day.

In A Calm, Vernet portrayed a completely peaceful scene in striking contrast to its pendant, A Storm on a Mediterranean Coast . Taken together, the two works show, on the one hand, nature's benevolence, and on the other, nature's fury.

A Calm at a Mediterranean Port, 1770 by Claude-Joseph Vernet.

 In brilliant detail, Claude-Joseph Vernet captured the

“In 1822 the art patron and collector, Heinrich Wagener, commissioned a “times of day” diptych from Friedrich. The morning picture became The Solitary Tree. A grassy landscape with groups of trees, ponds, and villages extends to the foothills of the mountains behind the spires of a Gothic town. One mighty oak stands like a statue in the middle of the composition. A shepherd shelters beneath it. Its great trunk has withstood wind and weather, but the tips of the branches of this giant tree have already died off. Above the tree, the clouds form of a kind of cupola. Transgressing against the classical laws of composition, Friedrich cuts through all the various levels of the picture with the tree as the central foreground axis. And thus, at a stroke the oak tree takes on the role of mediator between heaven and earth, between the transcendental and the mundane. As an image of nature, it embodies natural strength and the life force, while at the same time the with-ered branches point to a life beyond this one.”⁣

🏛 (Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ Solitary Tree⁣ 1822⁣ “In 1822 the

Thomas Moran, Venice, Sunset behind Santa Maria, 1898

 Thomas Moran, Venice, Sunset behind Santa Maria, 1898 Oil

 Marcus C. Stone, In Love, 1888 Oil on Canvas, 111.8 x 167.7

Wijnand Jan Josephus Nuijen (1813-1839) was a Dutch painter and printmaker who specialised in landscapes, and was greatly influenced by the French Romantics.

Nuijen was unusual among Dutch painters of the period, his theatricality and liberal style contrasting with the near photographic depiction that was then the norm.

Here, he has successfully captured the Dutch water landscape with a surprisingly light and pure colour palette and loose brushwork.

Water Landscape with Mill, 1836 by Wijnand Nuijen.

 Wijnand Jan Josephus Nuijen (1813-1839) was a Dutch painter

“Sáenz was a Spanish artist who was born in 1863. His work can be considered academic, although he has a predilection for themes of romantic symbolism, such as in La tumba del poeta or in Stella matutina, both at the Museo de Málaga and both obtained awards in 1901. ⁣

The novelty in this work lies in the interpretation of this everyday virgin, exponent of real and concrete referents, told with a technique that recreates in the precision of the detail and in the naturalism of the forms close to the English pre-Raphaelite proposals but also to the idealist interests of Franco-Belgian symbolists.”⁣

 Pedro Sáenz ⁣ Stella Matutina ⁣ 1901⁣ “Sáenz was a Spanish

Picture in Remembrance of Johann Emanuel Bremer⁣

“This work was carried out in memory of the Berlin doctor Johann Emanuel Bremer, who had dedicated his life to caring for the poor, especially with the founding of a center for the prevention of smallpox, in which he stood out as a scholar of the vaccine against this sickness.  He passed away in November 1816. Friedrich was impressed by his life, to the point of performing this work in tribute to him and including the name of the Berlin doctor, "Bremer", on the garden gate.  As in Terraza, from 1811-12, the gate represents the passage of life to the hereafter.  In front of her, the full moon represents Christ, the hope and goal of this final journey.  In the background, the Gothic architecture of a city lost in the mist, as in Greifswald in the moonlight, leads us to the kingdom, the celestial city to which souls go after death, a journey symbolized by the sailboats that are appreciated in its port.  The poplars reinforce this funerary sense of symbolism.  The foreground, as in New Brandenburg, is darkened, so that the light of Christ illuminates the beyond.  Regarding the symbolization of the gate as a door to eternal life, it was a frequent topic in the first German Romanticism.  The Prussian King Frederick William III himself ordered the renovation of a palace garden in memory of his wife who died of him in 1810, for whom the queen had abandoned him on her last visit.”⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ Picture in Remembrance of Johann

“The Fallen Angel is part of the Musée Fabre collection. It is a classic portrayal of a man by an academic artist Alexandre Cabanel. With the crafted way he depicts the musculature of the figure, the angel has both arms raised and his fingers of his two hands interlocked hiding most of his face.  Cabanel’s inspiration for this work was John Milton’s 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost and the fallen angels, Moloch, Belial, Mulciber, Mammon and Beelzebub. In the work we see the “fallen” angel – fallen from grace and banished by God. ⁣

Despite this shielding of his facial expression, it does not hide from us his feelings as we can judge his mood by what we see in his eyes. There is a look of vengeance and anger in his eyes.  He knows someone will pay for his ejection from the side of God. He retains his pride but thinks about retribution. The subject shocked the exhibition jurists as no students had ever submitted from Rome a painting which featured the Devil. This was a history painting submission and certain rules had to be followed and the jurists and academics who examined the work criticized it for bordering on a style of Romanticism.”⁣

 Alexandre Cabanel⁣ The Fallen Angel⁣ 1847⁣ “The Fallen

“As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.⁣

In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.⁣

However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." Together with Ingres, Delacroix is considered one of the last old Masters of painting, and one of the few who was ever photographed.”⁣

 Eugène Delacroix⁣ Self-Portrait in a Green Vest⁣ ca. 1837 ⁣

“Henry Fuseli was a leading figure of Romanticism, a 19th-century art movement defined by dreamy iconography. In his most famous (and aptly named) painting, The Nightmare, Fuseli delves into the scary side of the subconscious.⁣

This spine-tingling work of art shows a sleeping woman with an incubus—a male demon that preys upon women as they sleep—perched on her body. A ghostly horse emerges from behind a red velvet curtain, forming the only perceivable part of the blackened background.⁣

Most art historians believe that The Nightmare was inspired by German folktales. According to legend, men who slept alone were visited by horse specters, while lone women were possessed by demons or the devil. By incorporating both of these frightening figures in the composition, Fuseli visually represents the manifestation of a living nightmare.”⁣

 Henry Fuseli⁣ The Nightmare⁣ 1781 ⁣ “Henry Fuseli was a

July 28: Liberty Leading the People⁣⁣

“Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple) is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman of the people with a phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads the people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne.⁣⁣

The painting may have influenced Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. In particular, the character of Gavroche is widely believed to have been inspired by the figure of the pistols-wielding boy running over the barricade. The novel describes the events of the June Rebellion two years after the revolution celebrated in the painting, the same rebellion that led to its being removed from public view.⁣⁣

The painting inspired Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's Liberty Enlightening the World, known as the Statue of Liberty in New York City, which was given to the United States as a gift from the French a half-century after Liberty Leading the People was painted. The statue, which holds a torch in its hand, takes a more stable, immovable stance than that of the woman in the painting. An engraved version of part of the painting, along with a depiction of Delacroix, was featured on the 100 franc note from 1978 to 1995.”⁣⁣

 ⁣Eugène Delacroix⁣⁣ July 28: Liberty Leading the People⁣⁣

“When Cot exhibited this painting at the Salon of 1880, critics speculated about the source of the subject. Some proposed the French novel Paul and Virginie by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), in which the teenage protagonists run for shelter in a rainstorm, using the heroine’s overskirt as an impromptu umbrella; others suggested the romance Daphnis and Chloe by the ancient Greek writer Longus. New York collector and Metropolitan Museum benefactor Catharine Lorillard Wolfe commissioned the work under the guidance of her cousin John Wolfe, one of Cot's principal patrons. Like the artist’s earlier Springtime, it was immensely popular and extensively reproduced.”⁣

 Pierre-Auguste Cot ⁣ The Storm⁣ 1880⁣ “When Cot exhibited

Achilles Searching for the Shade of Patrocles⁣

“A prominent Romantic artist, Henry Fuseli (1747 – 1825) regarded horrifying and grotesque subjects as fascinating and beautiful. Originally trained to be a priest, Fuseli instead became an artist, impassioned by the works of Michelangelo, whose style he strove to replicate during his career. A major portion of his works depicted scenes from Shakespeare and Milton, powerfully conveyed in his intense, imaginative style. Ahead of his time, Fuseli strongly impacted the Expressionists and Surrealists.⁣

In this piece, Achilles is sitting on the ground, the arched line of his body following the spirit of Patroclus which hovers above him, and which he reaches towards, crescent moon in the cloudy sky behind.”⁣

 Henry Fuseli⁣ Achilles Searching for the Shade of

“There is a combination of a background landscape with architecture and figurative portraits in the foreground. Additional touches of flowers and delicate clothing leaves a beautiful overall painting. Most of the elements found here are typical of Waterhouse but this particular scene is composed to a particularly impressive level and came when the artist was at the height of his powers.⁣

Two beautiful servants play violins on the left of the composition, whilst St Cecilia sleeps in her grand looking chair. Her feet delicately lie on top of a pretty red carpet and the whole scene in general gives an atmosphere of wealth and elegance. When viewing the original painting one is able to see each and every detail added by the artist to this large canvas, where as small photographs of the piece may not deliver that.”⁣

 John William Waterhouse⁣ Saint Cecilia ⁣ 1895⁣ “There is a

“Trial by Jury, or Laying Down the Law as it is commonly known, is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1840 by the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer, which satirises the legal profession. It depicts dogs in the roles of members of the court with a French poodle centre stage as the judge. The painting was inspired by a chance comment by a judge, while at dinner with Landseer, that the French poodle belonging to amateur artist and renowned socialite, the Count d'Orsay, "would make a capital Lord Chancellor".⁣

Landseer was a member of the Royal Academy and had become famous for his paintings and drawings of animals.⁣

He completed Trial by Jury in 1840—it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the same year and was acquired by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, who had Landseer add his Blenheim spaniel, Bony, into the scene behind the greyhound. Early copies of the painting can be seen with Bony absent. The original now hangs in the Sculpture Gallery at Chatsworth House. The poodle has been variously identified as representing Lord Brougham, who had been Lord Chancellor from 1830 to 1834, or Lord Lyndhurst, who had held the post three times (1827–1830, 1834–1835, and 1841–1846).”⁣

 Sir Edwin Landseer⁣ Trial by Jury⁣ (Laying down the Law)

“This painting illustrates the Song of Solomon. Two passages from the Song of Solomon are inscribed on the picture's gilded frame:⁣

‘My beloved is mine and I am his’ (2:16)⁣

‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine’ (1:2)⁣

The bride, caught in the action of moving back her veil, is attended by four virginal bridesmaids and an African page boy. All contrast strikingly with the red hair and pale skin of the bride: not just the African skin and features, but also the varying shades of brunette hair and dark caucasian skin tones of all four bridesmaids. It has been suggested that this colour contrast, carefully painted as a frame to the bride's features, was influenced by a controversial painting by Édouard Manet, entitled Olympia (first exhibited in 1865). Rossetti made a visit to Manet while working on The Beloved, and the painting also owes much to the works of Titian.

Rossetti arranged the bride in a head-dress which is distinctly recognisable as Peruvian, and in a Japanese gown. Again, this abundance of exotic fabric frames the face of the bride, dominant in the centre of the canvas, with its western-European features. Rossetti ostensibly finished this oil in 1866, but continued to make changes to it throughout his life. ⁣

Some modern commentators suggest that Rossetti is celebrating beauty and diversity. Others see it as racist, and argue that it imposes white standards of beauty, positioning the bride as superior due to the colour of her skin.”⁣

 Dante Gabriel Rossetti⁣ The Beloved (‘The Bride’)⁣ 1865–6⁣

“Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century 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. His primary interest was the contemplation of nature, and his often symbolic and anti-classical work seeks to convey a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. Friedrich's paintings characteristically set a human presence in diminished perspective amid expansive landscapes, reducing the figures to a scale that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension".⁣

Friedrich was born in the town of Greifswald on the Baltic Sea in what was at the time Swedish Pomerania. He studied in Copenhagen until 1798, before settling in Dresden. 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.”⁣

🏛 (Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe)⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ Rocky Reef on the Sea Shore ⁣

“In Caspar David Friedrich’s painting, a man wearing a dark green overcoat and boots overlooks a cloudy landscape, steadying himself with a cane. Mounted on a dark, craggy rock face, the figure stands at the center of distant, converging planes. Art historian Joseph Koerner, a professor at Harvard University, notes that the midpoint of the painting rests at the man’s chest. “The heart is the center of the universe,” he says.⁣

Over the past two centuries, the image has become a cultural icon. It adorned the cover of Terry Eagleton’s 1990 philosophical tome The Ideology of the Aesthetic. It has been used to illustrate Franz Schubert’s Winter Journey cycle, a classical music composition that evokes a gloomy, itinerant protagonist. ⁣

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is the quintessential Romantic artwork. The aesthetic began as a reaction against the Enlightenment values (logic, rationality, order) that partially contributed to the bloody, monarch-toppling French Revolution of 1789. Throughout Europe, writers, artists, and musicians turned to emotion, imagination, and the sublime for inspiration. Nature—wild, unbridled, and far more powerful than 19th century Europeans—became a major subject. In particular, the period exalted individuals and their strong emotions. Friedrich exemplified these qualities as he placed one man, gazing at a vast and unknowable territory, in the middle of his canvas.”⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ Wanderer above the Sea of Fog⁣

“The landscape of Vermont and New Hampshire inspired Maxfield Parrish in 1922 to create the lush, romantic painting  Daybreak.⁣

Daybreak became the most popular art print of the 20th century. One in four U.S. households owned a print of the neoclassical landscape with two beautiful nymphs in the foreground.⁣

Parrish’s spectacularly imaginative art made him famous and allowed him to live comfortably with his family in the Cornish Art Colony. There he entertained President Woodrow Wilson, actress Ethel Barrymore and journalist Walter Lippman.  Norman Rockwell idolized him from across the Connecticut River in Vermont. Calendars he illustrated as advertisements sold by the millions. And a shade of cobalt blue was even named after him.⁣

In 1922 Maxfield Parrish finished what he called ‘the great painting’: Daybreak. He used  three models: Kitty Owen, William Jennings Bryan’s granddaughter; his daughter Jean; and Susan Lewin, his young nanny.⁣

The painting achieved staggering success. Still in print, Daybreak outsold Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans and Da Vinci’s Last Supper.⁣

Daybreak continues to influence popular culture.  Variations were used on a Moody Blues’ album cover, in a Michael Jackson music video, a Bloom County cartoon collection and the movie poster for The Princess Bride.”⁣

 Maxfield Parrish⁣ Daybreak⁣ 1922⁣ “The landscape of Vermont

“Its title is fully, " The Silent Voice⁣

(Thereto the silent voice replied, ‘Look up tro’night: the world is wide’)"⁣

The title is from a poem by Alfred Tennyson, called The Two Voices, which is about depression. It's highly criticized due to its themes and how the topic of suicide's handled, but I think some lines are beautiful. Based on where the painter drew his lines from, and how it seems as if she lost her lover, I stopped the excerpt where I thought was most fitting. Here's that snippet:⁣

Look up thro' night: the world is wide.⁣

"Think you this mould of hopes and fears⁣

Could find no statelier than his peers⁣

"Tho' thou wert scatter'd to the wind,⁣

 Gerald Moira⁣ The Silent Voice⁣ 1898⁣ “Its title is fully

Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Bacchante⁣⁣

“The Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Bacchante, depicts the famous, and scandalous, society figure in the guise of one of the ancient worshipers of Bacchus, the god of wine. She looks at the viewer over her shoulder, holding a tambourine above her, with her hair and dress tumbling behind. In the background, smoke ominously spews from a volcano. ⁣⁣

"The life of Lady Hamilton is a romance" wrote Vigée Le Brun whilst in Naples, and she was certainly correct. An actress-turned-noblewoman, the fashionable Emma had a series of high-profile affairs, including with Lord Nelson, and was the muse of artist George Romney. She was also famous for her "attitudes," a charade-type affair in which she dressed up and posed in the guise of different mythological figures calling upon the audience to guess which goddess or nymph she portrayed. Upon seeing such a performance, Vigée Le Brun was very much impressed with Lady Hamilton, calling her "admirable to behold." ⁣⁣

A sense of Lady Hamilton's balance between sensation and scandal is evident in Vigée Le Brun's depiction, which mixes playfulness with an underlying sense of chaos. Combining her lyrical Rococo style of portraiture with Neoclassical history painting, the figure marks a dramatic diagonal line from top left to bottom right. Her smile as she turns to the viewer, as well her clothing, hair, and the gentleness with which she holds her instrument, suggest a lightness and elegance. Vigée Le Brun depicts her subject smiling with her teeth showing, which was, although a trademark of the artist's animated style, highly controversial for portraiture at the time, perhaps also reflecting Emma's unconventional reputation.”⁣⁣

 Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun⁣⁣ Portrait of Emma, Lady

“Grande Odalisque, also known as Une Odalisque or La Grande Odalisque, is an oil painting of 1814 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicting an odalisque, or concubine. Ingres' contemporaries considered the work to signify Ingres' break from Neoclassicism, indicating a shift toward exotic Romanticism.⁣

Grande Odalisque attracted wide criticism when it was first shown. It is renowned for the elongated proportions and lack of anatomical realism. The work is owned by the Louvre Museum, Paris which purchased the work in 1899.⁣

This eclectic mix of styles, combining classical form with Romantic themes, prompted harsh criticism when it was first shown in 1814. Critics viewed Ingres as a rebel against the contemporary style of form and content. When the painting was first shown in the Salon of 1819, one critic remarked that the work had "neither bones nor muscle, neither blood, nor life, nor relief, indeed nothing that constitutes imitation". This echoed the general view that Ingres had disregarded anatomical realism. Ingres instead favored long lines to convey curvature and sensuality, as well as abundant, even light to tone down the volume. Ingres continued to be criticized for his work until the mid-1820s.”⁣

 Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres⁣ Grande Odalisque⁣ 1814⁣

“His head bowed, a man walks alone in the silvery, cold moonlit night while contemplating a megalithic tomb and its implicit message of death. It is winter, and all around him nature is dying. Leafless trees loom behind like specters, but a grove of verdant oaks rises through the mist in the background with the promise of life. The waxing moon, high in the sky, also acts as a counterbalance to death, symbolizing Christ and the promise of rebirth for the artist Caspar David Friedrich. ⁣

Friedrich was part of the German Romantic movement; his deeply personal and introspective vision addressed Christian themes through analogies based on the cycles of nature. A Walk at Dusk was among a small group of works Friedrich completed before he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1835. The painting embodies both the melancholy he experienced during this period and the consolation he found in the Christian faith.”⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ A Walk at Dusk⁣ 1835⁣ “His head

“Like its companion piece, the evening picture of the diptych was painted in 1822. In Moonrise over the Sea Friedrich took up one of his favorite themes. In the reflected light of the night sky, it is as though the surface of the water begins to glow all of its own accord, taking up the light of heaven, as it were. Clouds have come up and the round shape of the full moon is half hidden behind the banks of cloud at the horizon. This means that the moonlight does not fall evenly but seems to be breaking out of a gateway in the clouds, creating a magical play of light. Complementary colours, ranging from golden to whitish yellow, violet and blue, define the contrasts of light and shade. There is a sense of the magnitude and unity of the universe. Moved by this wonder of nature, three people sit on rounded rocks near the shore, and their dark silhouettes heighten the effect of the gleaming light of the sky and the sea. Two sailing ships pursue a ghostly course across the water. The sublime drama with the moon as the symbol of hope is imbued with a quality of unearthly beauty.”⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ Moonrise over the Sea⁣ 1822⁣ “Like

“John Atkinson Grimshaw (6 September 1836 – 13 October 1893) was an English Victorian-era artist now best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes.⁣

Today, he is considered one of the great painters of the Victorian era, as well as one of the best and most accomplished nightscape, and townscape, artists of all time. He was called a "remarkable and imaginative painter" by the critic and historian Christopher Wood in Victorian Painting (1999).⁣

Grimshaw's accuracy and attention to realism was criticised by some of his contemporaries, with one critic claiming that his paintings appeared to ‘showed no marks of handling or brushwork’, adding that ‘not a few artists were doubtful whether they could be accepted as paintings at all’. However, other contemporaries recognised his mastery of lighting and technique, and James McNeill Whistler, whom Grimshaw worked with in his Chelsea studios, stated, “I considered myself the inventor of nocturnes until I saw Grimmy’s moonlit pictures”.”⁣

 John Atkinson Grimshaw⁣ Blackman Street, London⁣ 1885⁣

“Turner’s painting shows the final journey of the Temeraire, as the ship is towed from Sheerness in Kent along the river Thames to Rotherhithe in south-east London, where it was to be scrapped. The veteran warship had played a distinguished role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but by 1838 was over 40 years old and had been sold off by the Admiralty. When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839, the painting was accompanied by lines Turner had adapted from Thomas Campbell’s poem, Ye Mariners of England: ‘The flag which braved the battle and the breeze, / No longer owns her.’⁣

It is unlikely that Turner witnessed the ship being towed; instead, he imaginatively recreated the scene using contemporary reports. Set against a blazing sunset, the last voyage of the Temeraire takes on a greater symbolic meaning, as the age of sail gives way to the age of steam.”⁣

 Joseph Mallord William Turner ⁣ The Fighting Temeraire⁣

“Friedrich worked for two years on this, ultimately his most famous work. The composition is divided horizontally into land, sea, and sky with a clear simplicity that shocked his contemporaries. A monk stands, bareheaded, on the shore. Seagulls circle around him. The lonely figure faces the leaden blackness of the immeasurably vast sea. The grey band of cloud over the water surprisingly gives way to blue sky along the top edge of the picture. No artistic composition had ever been as uncompromising as this: the main space of the picture seems like an abyss of some kind; there are no boundaries, there is nothing to hold on to, just a sense of floating between night and day, between despair and hope. In 1810 Heinrich von Kleist put into words, as no other could, the magical fascination of this painting: “Nothing could be more sombre nor more disquieting than to be placed thus in the world: the one sign of life in the immensity of the kingdom of death, the lonely center of a lonely circle. With its two or three mysterious objects the picture seems somehow apocalyptic, like Young’s Night Thoughts, and since its monotony and boundlessness are only contained by the frame itself, contemplation of this picture gives one the sense that one’s eyelids have been cut away.””⁣⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣⁣ The Monk by the Sea⁣⁣ 1810⁣⁣

Sea coast at moonlight (Meeresküste bei Mondschein)⁣

“To the marine genre, long popular among Dutch and Flemish masters, Friedrich adds a haunting sense of mystery, as seen in this picture.⁣

In a review of the third art and trade exhibition in Königsberg, Ferdinand Raabe described the picture in June 1833: “What kind of big black board is there? If we just step closer and fix our gaze on it for a while, a great dark seascape develops. It's night. The storm has raged, but heavy clouds are still covering the sky. They cover him like a big shroud. [...] Only through a small crack, through a small crevice, the moon disc peeks out temporarily. [...] The barren sea extends to the foreground. [...] It's reassured. The angry storm no longer reaches the lower atmosphere. [...] here only a light vehicle was blown up and half overturned and trapped between the stones.”⁣

In the tradition of marine painting, the wreck stands for the failed journey through life. In Friedrich's oeuvre, it sometimes reflects the artist's personal crises. In 1825/26, Friedrich reacted to the restorative course of politics with a depression. At that time the now lost depiction of a “storm at sea with wreck and shipper” was created, which is varied in this painting and corresponds to other shipwreck motifs. The "Seaside by Moonlight" is based on a drawing from June 1, 1826 (Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo), which Friedrich made on the beach near Saßnitz.”⁣

 Caspar David Friedrich⁣ Sea coast at moonlight (Meeresküste

Ferdinand Knab powerfully depicts a silent world of the past, with the setting sun casting a reflected glow on the ancient structure. It is a haunting reverie, which reminds one of Goethe’s poetic description of the ruined Temple of Segesta in Sicily:

"The site of the temple is remarkable...it towers over a vast landscape, and only a small corner of the sea is visible. The countryside broods in a melancholy fertility...The wind howled around the columns as though they were a forest, and birds of prey wheeled screaming above the empty shell."

The impressive temple which is the centerpiece of this painting has not been identified, and is probably Knab’s own creation. In an inventive pastiche he combined massive Corinthian columns supporting a plinth with a frieze of sculpted figures. Perhaps, with his architectural skills, he actually constructed a model of this temple, so he could study it in the round. The artist, obviously fond of his creation, repeated it from different angles in several other works.

In the present example, at the lower center an eagle or falcon with outstretched wings attacks a rearing snake. This was a traditional symbolic representation of opposites battling and may suggest that amidst these crumbling ruins at sunset there is an eternal conflict of life and death being waged. A possible prototype for this occurred in an early painting by Caspar David Friedrich of the Chasseur in the Forest with a single ill-omened, black bird highlighted at the center. Just like Friedrich, Knab’s work reveals his interest in transience and death.

Here in addition to the animals struggling for survival, there is a notable contrast between the bare trees on the left and the flourishing cypress on the right. The cypress, through its association with cemeteries and mourning, was a symbol of death. Thus this memorable landscape with ruins is fraught with symbols of decay.

Roman Ruin at Twilight, 1894 by Ferdinand Knab.

 Ferdinand Knab powerfully depicts a silent world of the

The entire art of Ivan Aivazovsky, the most influential marine painter in the Russian art of the 19th century, is imbued with features of romanticism. The artist often depicted storms, tempests, shipwrecks. He was attracted by the unusual effects of light reflected on the surface of water, and his interest in the rainbow, romanticists’ favorite motif, was not accidental.

In this painting by Aivazovsky, the rainbow hovering over a stormy sea encolours water splashes, and the sea water showing through them takes on a pinkish hue. A high wave hides the skyline, and the sea element, transformed by the rainbow light and against which the people fleeing from a sinking ship battle, becomes the main character of the canvas.

 The entire art of Ivan Aivazovsky, the most influential

When Friedrich resumed working in oil following the provisional end of his illness, there lingered a dark shadow which also afflicted his private life - a forewarning of the stroke he would later suffer and which would hasten his death. The motif of the graveyard now began to appear with greater frequency in his oeuvre, as for example in this painting "The Cemetery Entrance", which was probably commenced in 1825 but which remained unfinished. The imposing gateway is based on that of the Trinitatis cemetery in Dresden.

The Cemetery Entrance, c.1825 by Caspar David Friedrich.