Caspar David Friedrich Quotes
1774 - 1840
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I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am. Solitude is indispensible for my dialogue with nature.
Caspar David Friedrich— As quoted in Authenticity and Fiction in the Russian Literary Journey, 1790-1840 (2000) by Andreas Schönle, p. 108, from memoirs of Vasily Zhukovsky
— Variant translation: I have to stay alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature.
Just as the pious man prays without speaking a word and the Almighty hearkens unto him, so the artist with true feelings paints and the sensitive man understands and recognizes it.
Caspar David Friedrich— Quoted in S Hinz Caspar David Friedrich in Briefen und Bekenntnissen (1968).
Close your bodily eye, so that you may see your picture first with the spiritual eye. Then bring to the light of day that which you have seen in the darkness so that it may react on others from the outside inwards.
Caspar David Friedrich— Quoted in Caspar David Friedrich1774-1840, Tate Gallery (1972).
Every true work of art must express a distinct feeling.
Caspar David Friedrich— Quoted in William Vaughn Romantic Art (1978).
The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees in himself. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting what he sees before him. Otherwise his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead.
Caspar David Friedrich— Quoted in "The Awe-Struck Witness" in TIME magazine (28 October 1974) and in "On the Brink : The Artist and the Seas" by Eldon N. Van Liere in Poetics of the Elements in the Human Condition: The Sea (1985) edited by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka
— Variant translations:The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also omit to paint that which he sees before him.As quoted in German Romantic Painting (1994) by William Vaughan, p. 68
The divine is everywhere, even in a grain of sand; there I represented it in the reeds.
Caspar David Friedrich— On his painting Swans in the Rushes (c.1820), as quoted in "Absent Presences in Liminal Places: Murnau's Nosferatu and the Otherworld of Stoker's Dracula" by Saviour Catania in Literature Film Quarterly (2004)
The pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art. A painting which does not take its inspiration from the heart is nothing more than futile juggling. All authentic art is conceived at a sacred moment and nourished in a blessed hour; an inner impulse creates it, often without the artist being aware of it.
Caspar David Friedrich— As quoted in "Culture: Caspar D. Friedrich and the Wasteland" by Gjermund E. Jansen in Bits of News (3 March 2005)
Despite what even manyartists appear to believe, art is not and should not be merelya skill. It should actually be completelyand utterly the language of our feelings, our frame of mind; indeed, even of our devotion and our prayers.
Caspar David Friedrich— Quoted in Caspar David Friedrich1774-1840, Tate Gallery (1972).
The artist should not only paint what hesees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also omit to paint that which he sees before him.
Caspar David Friedrich— Quoted in Caspar David Friedrich1774-1840, Tate Gallery (1972).
