250 Years of Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich moved to Dresden in 1798. It was here that he settled as an artist and began his career. Dresden and its surroundings, in particular the Elbland and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, often served as a source of inspiration for the painter's paintings. Famous works such as "The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" or "The Great Enclosure near Dresden" were created in this region.

In 1816, Friedrich was appointed a member of the Royal Saxon Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, which emphasised his recognition as an important artist in the region.

On 21 January 1818, Caspar David Friedrich married Caroline Bommer, the daughter of blue dyer Christoph Bommer, 19 years his junior, in Dresden's Kreuzkirche. The small wedding ceremony took place at 7 o'clock in the morning. The marriage produced three children, who were born in Dresden and baptised in the Kreuzkirche. Friedrich's most famous painting was probably created around 1818: The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. 

The painting became a symbol of Romanticism with the painter's most famous back figure. The landscape pass that Friedrich needed to draw it in Saxon Switzerland has been preserved in the Saxon State Archives in Dresden. The painting is now in the Hamburg Kunsthalle.

Caspar David Friedrich died on 7 May 1840 and was buried in the Trinitatisfriedhof cemetery, which is one of the most important cemeteries in Dresden in terms of urban and cultural history due to its artistic design. A simple grave slab covers the painter's final resting place. Today's grave was designed in 1934 at the suggestion of the Saxon Heritage Society. The two imposing gate pillars of the cemetery served Friedrich as a model for his painting "Cemetery Entrance".