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A Window to Another World: Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Through May 11
Written by María José Rodríguez-Rexach
“The task of a work of art is to recognize the spirit of nature and, with one’s whole heart and intention, to saturate oneself with it and absorb it and give it back again in the form of a picture.” - Caspar David Friedrich
Woman at the Window by Caspar David Friedrich depicts a woman from behind, curiously gazing through a window. The woman is the artist’s wife, Caroline. She stands in his workspace overlooking the Elbe River from their home in Dresden. We see glimpses of what are presumably sailboats; their masts and the line of trees in the distance are interrupted by the interior’s window frame and walls. Contrasting Caroline’s figure is the geometric strictness of the domestic interior. The repetition of rectangles throughout alludes to the Romantic notion that the painted picture serves as a vehicle to experience nature’s mystery and sublimity [1].
With this, Caroline lies at the threshold of the familiar and the unknown. Much in the same way, Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, offers entry to another world.
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at the Window (1822), oil on canvas, 17 11/16 x 12 7/8 in. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s webpage.
With the Museum setting forth a striking curatorial arrangement, the most powerful component of The Soul of Nature is its stage crafting. Mounted in a mysterious and unexpected nook, just past the Bothmer Gallery II within the Greek and Roman collection exhibits, the first thing one sees from a distance is the artist’s name in bright white letters; coming closer, one can make out the title of the show underneath in deep purple. While the exhibition’s title can take on many meanings, audiences who may not be as familiar with Friedrich are prompted from the very beginning of their viewing journey with a set of words that epitomize what the art on display is meant to inspire.
The exhibit’s low lighting and dark walls create a forest-like atmosphere, a reference to the expressive natural illumination that permeates through Friedrich’s portrayals. As if mimicking how sunlight shines through robust branches and leaves, each artwork is surrounded by a vignette of light. Perhaps the show’s atmospheric effects could also be interpreted as resembling those of a temple or church, sites for sacred encounters, recalling how religious doctrine and faith influenced Friedrich’s practice. Accordingly, the pictures in this exhibition—many of which render the same view from a different physical perspective or recall a place in entirely reimagined compositions—aim to explore themes of transience and mortality, encouraging profound spiritual introspection in viewers.
The works on display follow a linear narrative to present the artist’s creative evolution and have been grouped within their respective geographic and historical contexts. As in Woman at the Window, viewers have the opportunity to vacillate between Friedrich’s personal spaces and the world that surrounded them. Further, evoking the Romantic fascination with the unseen are large apertures in between gallery spaces through which viewers can catch a glimpse of what painted scenery lies on the other side.
Visually and curatorially present throughout the entire show is the Rückenfigur [2]. Translating to “back-figure”, this Romantic compositional motif prompts viewers to imaginatively inhabit the anonymous figure before them. For example, as Caroline tilts her body in Woman at the Window, viewers may find themselves doing the same, trying to look over her shoulder, curious to see what is catching her attention outside. Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog—arguably one of Friedrich’s most well-known works which is impressively featured on loan in this exhibition— also employs this device, positioning the viewer behind a brave traveler who beholds a vertiginous sight of misty and imposing mountain peaks; one can only wonder what hides underneath the fog. Yet another example is portrayed in Woman before the Rising or Setting Sun, in which an unidentified female figure with outstretched arms greets a new day or bids it farewell. And, as life imitates art, we can appreciate the Rückenfiguren perusing the galleries, actively engaging with the evocative sites on display just as the artist intended.
A view through a wall aperture in Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature.
Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1817), oil on canvas, 37 5/16 x 29 7/16 in.
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman before the Rising or Setting Sun (1818-24), oil on canvas, 8 11/16 x 12 in.
Friedrich was very generous in providing enough visual details to articulate the meaning of these spiritual exchanges between nature and the self. The potency of his virtuous imagery lies in its potential to awaken all the senses, which is why “Sounds of the Sublime” by audio-naturalist Martyn Stewart—a component of the exhibition’s webpage—is yet another way in which the Museum has animated the works on display. Take the experience of viewing Cross by the Baltic Sea, for instance. In a pyramidal composition, Friedrich repeats one of his signature motifs, the cross, standing on a rocky promontory and towering over a turbulent tide. The jagged edges of the headland spread across the bottom length of the painting, holding a massive anchor in its protrusions. Mooring ropes extend and disappear into the lower right of the scene, while ships seem to sail towards the moonlit horizon line on the left. The ships may also be sailing towards the shore, seeking the cross for guidance and solace. The sweeping clouds in the silvery sky above seem to thin and dissolve, suggesting a storm has dissipated. As if meeting where the heavens begin, the sky at the highest point of the cross is clear. Playing Stewart’s “Soundscape: Baltic Sea” activates the sonorous potential of this painting. You can hear the waves crashing against the rocks, gulls squawking and wigeons whistling as they fly near and far, the coastal windswhooshing in your ear. Suddenly, one is completely engulfed, as if one were actually there.
Even though this audio element is quite stimulating, it is a shame that it is not introduced at any point within the physical show. Unless viewers researched additional information on the exhibition before their visit, they would not get to use this feature with a work in person. This unfortunate omission is recompensed, however, by the show’s audio guides. These are not only led by art historians and curators but are also led by Lutheran pastors and death doulas, offering a diversity of perspectives that build on the comprehensive wall text and the artist’s creative purpose. Overall, while revisiting what seems like a distant point in time and a different way of thinking, the exhibition invigorates the works on display in such a way that viewers can feel as if they are walking through one of Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes. In other words, the MET’s stage crafting places viewers’ imagination as the key to unlatching the window to the artist’s world.
A view inside Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature.
Caspar David Friedrich, Cross by the Baltic Sea (1815), oil on canvas, 10 1⁄4 x 75/8.
[1] As described in the wall text for Woman at the Window: “The repeated rectangles play with the idea of the painted surface as a window onto the natural world”.
[2] The Rückenfigur is introduced in the “Alone Together” portion of the exhibition.
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