Art is the Solution

Moonrise over the Sea Source: Google Arts & Culture Today, I wanted to share a painting by one of my favorite artists, Caspar David Friedrich (in fact, I like his work so much that I named my cat Caspar after him). Moonrise over the Sea is one of the finest examples of Friedrich’s romantic style. Today, Friedrich is considered to be one of the foremost artists of the Romantic movement. His use of dramatic landscapes, celebration of natural beauty, emphasis on individualism, and focus on emotion and the inner life of the artist make his work perfectly representative of the ethos of the Romantic movement. Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Thus, painters like Friedrich sought authenticity and spiritual fulfillment by exploring their own psyches with the goal of tapping into a higher emotional truth. Moonrise over the Sea strives to achieve this emotional realism through its symbolic landscape. The painting depicts a night scene. ...

Winter Landscape Source: Wikipedia I recently adopted a new cat named Caspar, so I thought it was a good time to bring you another painting by the great Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. Friedrich’s work checks all the boxes for Romantic art: dramatic landscapes, celebration of natural beauty, emphasis on individualism, and focus on emotion and the inner life of the artist. As a movement, Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Thus, painters like Friedrich sought authenticity and spiritual fulfillment by exploring their own psyches with the goal of tapping into a higher emotional truth. I saw this painting, entitled Winter Landscape , on Instagram, and I thought it would be fun to chat about. As the title suggests, this painting depicts a winter landscape. The spires of a church loom in the background, and two tall pine trees dominate the snowy scene. A cross stands in front of the trees, and a man—almost hidden in the shadows—lay...

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog Source: Wikipedia Over the past couple of days we’ve been talking about Romanticism, so, today, I want to talk about the quintessential Romantic painting: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. If you’ve ever enrolled in an art history class, this was probably the painting you saw when the instructor introduced the idea of Romanticism. It checks all the boxes for Romantic art: dramatic landscapes, celebration of natural beauty, emphasis on individualism, and focus on emotion and the inner life of the artist. As a movement, Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Painters like Caspar David Friedrich sought authenticity and spiritual fulfillment by exploring their own psyches with the goal of tapping into a higher emotional truth. Friedrich himself said: The artist's feeling is his law. All of this is present in Wanderer above the Sea of Fog . As in Gauguin’s Day of the God , the p...