Monday 6 December 2010

‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog,’ by Caspar David Friedrich

471px-Caspar_David_Friedrich_032

I’ve just hung a print of this inspirational 1818 German Romantic piece above my desk. As you can imagine, I’m thrilled to have it there.

It has that feeling you get when you’ve just conquered a piece of work, a line of thought, something with which you’ve been struggling—you’ve reached a new plateau and you see how all your previous work and thinking fits together—and you’re at that moment of rest, savouring the moment before conquering the next peak.

Like I say, thrilling.

And the piece didn’t cost an arm or a leg. It came at a very reasonable price from Inspirationz, with the words inscribed in the clouds,

“Happy are those who dream dreams, and
are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

It’s made me a very happy man.

3 comments:

Mark Auckland said...

I happened to sea a display of these at Manukau mall the other day,they are indeed well done!On my list of things to buy for sure.

Lynne said...

I saw this image just today with Kipling's poem "If" superscribed on it in the form of the letters I and f from the Art of Manliness blog.

It's excellent.

mtnrunner2 said...

I'm a little late to the party here, but I linked over from Dough Reich's art site and I'm enjoying looking over the pics and thoughts.

I've always enjoyed Friedrich. There's a terrific sense of being in a particular place, and his paintings come to mind often when landscapes look like them.

Taking this painting a bit literally: In Colorado we don't get a ton of fog because the air is dry, but on occasion we do see sights much like this painting.

For example, Lucho is an athlete/coach who lives in the hills near Boulder at about 8,500 feet and brings a camera on runs. Pretty cool for a daily jog, eh?

One of my favorite places to run are the peaks next to Boulder. This craggy summit is from Bear Peak last weekend. Crags worthy of a Friedrich. Maybe sometime I'll run and there will be a layer of clouds below!