Caspar David Friedrich, "On a Sailing Ship", between 1818 and 1820

Hall №352

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) was the most prominent representative of romanticism. However, German Romanticism was very different from the French, and was much closer to realism.

The world of Friedrich's paintings includes desert cliffs, boundless seas, sunset sky and moonlight. This kind of nature is mysterious, full of fearsome power, but its beauty elevates the soul. Specific events from life were rarely reflected in the artist's paintings, but "On the sailing" is one of them. Friedrich painted it just after his honeymoon in the north of Germany - in Greifswald and the Rugen Island. In 1818, already old and lonely, the artist married Caroline Bommer. In one letter he wrote:  "How much has changed in my life, when I turned from "I" to "We!" Happiness in love brought happiness in creativity: during 1818 he created 28 new paintings, among them was the picture "On a sailboat."

The young couple are sitting on the nose of a sailing boat and peering into the distance. Gothic towers of the city and new unknown life are there in the mist. Like most heroes of Friedrich's paintings, the young man and lady are shown from the back, their faces are not visible, that means it's "the images of the soul." They're considered as "romanticized portraits" of the artist and his young wife.

In 1820 Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich bought the painting during a visit to Friedrich's Studio in Dresden. For a long time it was in the Cottage in Peterhof.