Caspar David Friedrich - Wolves in the Forrest in Front of a Cave (WOLFSSCHLUCHT) - image-1

Lot 1878 Dα

Caspar David Friedrich - Wolves in the Forrest in Front of a Cave (WOLFSSCHLUCHT)

Auction 957 - overview Cologne
15.05.2010, 00:00 - Old Masters
Estimate: 100.000 € - 120.000 €
Result: 84.000 € (incl. premium)

Caspar David Friedrich

Wolves in the Forrest in Front of a Cave (WOLFSSCHLUCHT)

Oil on canvas (relined). 46 x 58,5 cm.

Caspar David Friedrich, in his subjective description of significant atmospheric elements of a landscape, is the most important painter of German Romanticism. His first important oil painting, the “Tetschen Altar,” was exhibitied in his studio first in 1807, prior to this his work consisted primarily of finely executed drawings in sepia. Between 1794 and 1798 Friedrich studied at the Academy in Copenhagen, then settled in Dresden. The present painting, a depiction of a “wolfs' gorge” - given by the artist to his brother Johann Samuel, and remaining in possession of the family until 1928 - was recognized by Börsch-Supan, on the basis of its inhibition before nature and before the period of intensene studies of nature,&n bsp; as one of the artist's isolated early paintings, and he dates it circa 1798/1799.
The painting, in finely executed coloration with richly naunced brown, green and blue tones, shows a forest interior. The observer's attention is steered to a cave where wolves gnaw upon a skeleten, which can be considered a symbol of death. Placed In the foregound compositionally opposite them is a hollowed out oak tree, a symbol of transcience.

Certificate

Karl-Wilhelm Jähnig 26 July 1928.

Provenance

A gift of the artist to his brother Johann Samuel Friedrich, Neubrandenburg. - Ludwig Friedrich, Neubrandenburg. - Marianne Friedrich, Leipzig (deceased 1927). - Hanns Friedrich, Leipzig (bis 1928). - Sammlung Wohler, Kassel (until 1969). - Private collection, Hessia.

Literature

Werner Sumowski: Norddeutsche Küstenlandschaft von Hackert bis zur Gegenwart, Stralsund 1958, no. 29 (reference). - Idem: Caspar David Friedrich-Studien, Wiesbaden 1970, p. 68 and 103, ill. 446. - Helmut Börsch-Supan: review of W. Sumowski, Caspar David Friedrich-Studien, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 34, 1971, p. 315. - Helmut Börsch-Supan, Karl-Wilhelm Jähnig: Caspar David Friedrich, Munich 1973, p. 20 and 240-241, no. 17 illustrated.

Exhibitions

"Pittoresk. Neue Perspektiven auf das Landschaftsbild," Marta Herford 2009/2010 (cat. p. 273).