Caspar David Friedrich stele on the Bächelweg in Krippen
Caspar David Friedrich spent the most productive time of his life in Saxony.
Friedrich came to Saxon Switzerland several times to hike and draw. From spring to summer 1813, the painter with the distinctive moustache even lived here for several months at a time. In the tranquil village of Krippen on the Elbe, in the house of his friend Friedrich Gotthelf Kummer, he sought refuge from the war and Napoleon, whom he hated. Saxony is the main theatre of the Wars of Liberation. Prussians, Russians and French take it in turns to march through Dresden. The fateful Battle of the Nations near Leipzig is imminent. Creating peaceful landscape impressions in the year of war: This is difficult for the sensitive and melancholic artist, who also sees himself as a patriot and takes a passionate interest in political events. "I've been away from Dresden for more than a fortnight and live here in a very pleasant neighbourhood. My stay here could be very useful to me if the events of the time had not so completely upset my mind and made me unable to start anything," he wrote in a letter to a friend on 31 March.
Inspired by the mystical rocky world of Saxon Switzerland, he collected inspiration for later works in his "Krippen Sketchbook", including "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog".
This new monument to the artist on Bächelweg in Krippen now commemorates this. In the style of historical signpost pillars, as they once gave the Romantic painters orientation in nature, the one and a half metre high sandstone stele will in future mark the Caspar David Friedrich Trail, which begins in Krippen.
Hiking suggestion: Caspar David Friedrich Trail
Friedrich came to Saxon Switzerland several times to hike and draw. From spring to summer 1813, the painter with the distinctive moustache even lived here for several months at a time. In the tranquil village of Krippen on the Elbe, in the house of his friend Friedrich Gotthelf Kummer, he sought refuge from the war and Napoleon, whom he hated. Saxony is the main theatre of the Wars of Liberation. Prussians, Russians and French take it in turns to march through Dresden. The fateful Battle of the Nations near Leipzig is imminent. Creating peaceful landscape impressions in the year of war: This is difficult for the sensitive and melancholic artist, who also sees himself as a patriot and takes a passionate interest in political events. "I've been away from Dresden for more than a fortnight and live here in a very pleasant neighbourhood. My stay here could be very useful to me if the events of the time had not so completely upset my mind and made me unable to start anything," he wrote in a letter to a friend on 31 March.
Inspired by the mystical rocky world of Saxon Switzerland, he collected inspiration for later works in his "Krippen Sketchbook", including "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog".
This new monument to the artist on Bächelweg in Krippen now commemorates this. In the style of historical signpost pillars, as they once gave the Romantic painters orientation in nature, the one and a half metre high sandstone stele will in future mark the Caspar David Friedrich Trail, which begins in Krippen.
Hiking suggestion: Caspar David Friedrich Trail
