Ships in the harbor in the evening
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| Ships in the harbor in the evening |
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| Caspar David Friedrich , around 1828 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 76.5 × 88 cm |
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New Masters Gallery in the Albertinum State Art Collections Dresden |
Ships in the harbor in the evening is a picture by the painter Caspar David Friedrich from 1828. It hangs in the Neue Meister gallery in Dresden .
Image description
The picture shows a port and ships approaching it. They are probably fishing boats; this is indicated by the pots behind it . Dark clouds float over the likewise gloomy water, which just reflects the last rays of the evening sun. Only a few people can be seen on the approaching ships. The picture is pretty exactly divided into two parts, the lower part is taken up by the land and the sea up to the horizon border, the upper part contains the entire evening sky with sun and clouds.
Ships approach the harbor from the horizon at regular intervals, which at some point become infinitely small due to perspective . The ships standing close together in the harbor form a unit and have a much larger dark sky above them.
Image interpretation
The motif of the port as the beginning and end of ship trips appears in several of Friedrich's pictures; it is a gathering place and resting place and, in its meaning as a port of life, the origin and destination of the earth walk.
Morning (outgoing boats)
Cross on the Baltic Sea
Moon rise over the sea
Seashore in the moonlight
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The content of the picture is made accessible through knowledge of the history of the picture. In 1828 it was painted on behalf of the Lützschena entrepreneur and art collector Maximilian Speck von Sternburg and with a dedication inscription on the hull of the boat in the foreground, “Maxn v. Bacon ", provided. It is known from this client that he attached great importance to the orientation of his life towards death and was happy to show visitors his future burial site. He also kept the heart of his wife, who died in 1836, close by.
This way of thinking may not have been alien to Friedrich either, and so, in this intellectual symbiosis of client and recipient, a work could emerge that is one of the most complicated compositions that Friedrich has created.
“The rhythmic row of returning fishing boats crosses the background and aims forward to the port of death. The foremost of the boats is received as if by a portal formed by the symmetrical shapes of the poles that lean against the house and the mast leaning to the right. The five sails of the ships on the other side of the pier form a symmetrical group; However, each of these sails is given a directional value towards the center, where the crescent of the waxing moon shines out from under the clouds.
The richness of the forms corresponds to the unusually intense coloring, in which blue-violet, the color of mourning, predominates, but in addition bright colors of surprising glow and splendor light up. "
The painting was already auctioned in 1857, shortly after the owner's death.
Web links
- Ships in the harbor in the evening in the Online Collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden