Annelore Rieke-Müller: Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) interpreted from the perspective of the History of Science and Cultural Studies – this approach by Annelore Rieke-Müller opens up new possibilities of interpretation that place his paintings and their reception more strongly than before in the context of his time and his personal environment. It allows new discoveries in terms of content and a closer look at the development of his work. Friedrich thus becomes recognisable as an artist who sought to capture and depict the dynamic wholeness of nature and the world as a whole, who unwaveringly placed his art at the service of artistic and socio-political ideas. His suggestive painting, based on the principles of Romantic natural science, made him a genius for his contemporaries. With the decline of this concept of research, however, his work lost its topicality.