Two Men Contemplating the Moon

Two men stand on a mountain path and look at the crescent moon in the night sky. Next to it the evening star shines. The men are dressed in old German costume with blue robes, black Barrett and Kranzmütze. Both seem familiar, one puts his hand on the other's shoulder. At dusk, which the painter symbolizes through the brown coloring, they are engrossed in conversation. The wind-ruffled and uprooted oak, leaning on a mighty rock, and the forest appearing in the distance complete the picture.

Representing the viewer of the picture, the two men stand in nature. Caspar David Friedrich does not paint a lifelike scene, but depicts the view of nature in the age of Romanticism. The crescent moon, with light shading, the full moon is traced, is the focus of the painting. The scene can not be classified exactly in a particular season, it is probably spring in the time of the increasing crescent moon before Easter. The melancholy motif is an invitation, similar to the two depicted men, to engage in a contemplative view of nature. Controversial is the political level of the image. The time of origin of the picture coincides with the Carlsbad Resolutions 1819, which were taken to combat national tendencies in Germany and led to a ban on this costume. On the other hand, the old German costume can be found in paintings, sketches and studies by Caspar David Friedrichs even before 1819.

The painter Caspar David Friedrich has made of this image several variants and copies, which are still preserved today. The presumed first version hangs in the gallery Neue Meister in Dresden. The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art owns a Dresden-based painting by Friedrich himself. It is dated 1825/30. For further copies, it is unclear whether the author is Caspar David Friedrich.

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Two Men Contemplating the Moon by Caspar David Friedrich
moonlight · relationship · tree · fallen · perspective · moon · darkness · gloomy · adventure · contemplating · Moon