Caspar David Friedrich

With its particularly impressive landscape, the Bastei area has always offered a wealth of motifs for artists. Caspar David Friedrich also immortalized it in some of his works. The oil painting "Felsenlandschaft" (Rocky Landscape) from 1823, for example, depicts the imposing rock formation of the Neurathen Rock Gate.

Depictions of the Uttewalder Felsentor marked a turning point in the perception of the landscape at the end of the 18th century: horror at the primal force and threat of nature turned into delight at the picturesque romance of becoming and passing away. Caspar David Friedrich sought solitude in the area for several days and sketched the landscape. He reported to the Russian poet V. A. Zhukovsky in 1821 that he had once lived for a whole week in the Uttewalder Grund "between rocks and fir trees" and had not met a single soul. In 1825, he processed this intensive experience into his gloomy oil painting "Uttewalder Grund".

The old Stolpen Fortress, with its silhouette visible from afar, also aroused the interest of the Romantics. Caspar David Friedrich stayed in Stolpen on August 27, 1820, and drew the freestanding, towering Cosel Tower in portrait format. "The towers too long," Friedrich noted on his sketch of the Cosel Tower that day. Next to the tower, a gaping wound. Here he drew the part of the complex that had been destroyed by Napoleon and his troops just a few years earlier. The gap in the wall and the rubble that was blasted out of it can be clearly seen. At that time, Friedrich made it his task to document the traces of Napoleonic destruction and drew them wherever he could.

Caspar David Friedrich worked on the famous "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" around 1817. For the figure seen from behind, he needed a prominent rock on which to position the wanderer. He used a rock on the ascent to the Kaiserkrone as a model for this. He must have discovered this rock during one of his hikes in Krippen in 1813. "So high above the highest point of the stone is the horizon," he noted on the edge of the drawing "Rocky Knoll". Five years later, this sketch served as a template for his famous painting. Even though the rock is located at the foot of the Kaiserkrone, an ascent to the Kaiserkrone is worthwhile. The view is phenomenal!

The year 1800 can be considered the peak of Friedrich's Saxon Switzerland euphoria. The then 25-year-old was in the region at least five times that year. In addition to his multi-day adventure in the Uttewalder Grund, Friedrich visited the area around Hohnstein at the beginning of July. Already due to its location, Hohnstein Castle offers a picturesque sight. The immediate surroundings of the rocks and deeply incised valleys practically attracted painters in the 18th and 19th centuries. As it did Caspar David Friedrich! At the beginning of July 1800, Friedrich stayed at Hohnstein, where he sketched the gateway to Hohnstein Castle on July 8 and the so-called "Schinderloch", an opening of the Bärengarten in Hohnstein that still exists today, on the following day. Friedrich was impressed by its ruins and captured the complex in a pencil sketch.

Also around 1800, Friedrich roamed through the lovely Polenztal valley and discovered the imposing, pine-covered sandstone block. Years later, he incorporated the rock study into his painting "View into the Elbe Valley" (Ausblick ins Elbtal). Taking artistic liberty, he lifted the multi-ton colossus onto a viewpoint and replaced the pines with spruces.

A flat plateau, almost vertical rock faces, a wooded base, open countryside all around. The 415-meter-high Lilienstein is a striking phenomenon. Caspar David Friedrich was also fascinated and drew the only table mountain on the right bank of the Elbe from various perspectives. Views from Rathen, Krippen, and Prossen have been handed down. Whether he was ever on the plateau of the Lilienstein cannot be said with certainty. In a sepia drawing around 1836, the Lilienstein makes a final grand appearance in Friedrich's work – as the otherworldly destination of an arduous life journey.

Like the Gamrig, the Honigstein also somewhat resembles castle ruins. The striking formation is only hinted at in the background of Friedrich's watercolor "Rocks by a Forest Path," created around 1810, but it is crucial for the composition. The painter's location can be easily traced through the perspective. It is the path through the Amselgrund, shortly before the Amselfall. In this, as in other paintings of the time, one can see that at the beginning of the 19th century, Saxon Switzerland was significantly less densely wooded. Today, the Honigstein mostly hides behind tall trees.

Even in Caspar David Friedrich's youth, the "Kuhstall", the largest rock arch in Saxon Switzerland, was a popular excursion destination. Nature lovers had rolled a block of stone into it to use as a table, someone had chiseled a cooking area into the rock, there was a snack stand in the summer, and it was fashionable to write one's name on the rock wall. Brushes and ink were even provided for this purpose! Both are forbidden today! Friedrich was also here several times. His drawing, created around 1818, was made during a hike with his wife and his friends Kummer and Carus.

Caspar David Friedrich repeatedly interrupted his work in his studio in Dresden to hike and sketch in Saxon Switzerland. At least 19 stays are documented. He surely often passed through the old Elbe Gate of Pirna during these trips. He sketched it during one of his very first encounters with it. The remainder of the old city fortification had already been used as a motif by Bernardo Bellotto, known as Canaletto, a few decades earlier. It was demolished in the middle of the 19th century.