This style of composition helps the viewer to feel very much a part of the painting which was one of the strengths of this famous German painter. Caspar David Friedrich. (n.d.) Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, ca. Academica Press, LLC, 2006 • Bèorsch-Supan, Helmut. It was painted circa 1818 and is also known as the Mountaineer in a Misty Landscape or Wanderer above the Mist. Friedrich certainly wanted the viewer to identify with the solitary subject. I can say this though: the poem flows along really nicely when read out loud, except for the last line in my opinion. It currently resides in the Kunsthalle Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. He wears the green uniform of the volunteer rangers, those called into service against Napoleon by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.As this man was most likely killed in 1813 or 1814, this painting may also serve as a patriotic tribute.Though Friedrich painted this scene in his studio, he sketched it at the place of inspiration, Elbsandsteingebirge, in Saxony and Bohemia. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Hsiu Wei Wu. Unlike Friedrich’s Wanderer, who has his back to the viewer, Munch’s subject faces and confronts the viewer and practically forces the viewer to focus on the emotion on his face instead of the landscape. Perhaps due to the perils of translations, this German painting is sometimes given different names in English, beyond the generally accepted name of Wanderer above the Sea of Fog which we have defaulted to. Taschen, 2003, Wanderer Above the Mist, Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog Page's Content. Koerner, Joseph Leo, Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape, 2nd edition, Reaktion Books, 2009, “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich (Ca. 1817), Oil on canvas, 94.8 × 74.8 cm Because he placed the viewer directly behind the man, we see what the man sees. This suggests age and experience, but he holds it at an angle which oozes strength and confidence. Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog poem by Robert Perry. The viewer then engages with the figure and less attention is paid to the landscape, an ideal crucial to the Romantic artists.Munch also displays a hostile landscape, showing the opposite of the Romantics' linking of humankind and God through nature. The figure stands in contemplation and self reflection, mesmerized by the haze of the sea fog as if it were a religious and spiritual experience. What’s your interpretation and why? Wanderer above the Sea of Fog seems to convey a sense of self-reflection, which is depicted in how the subject gazes out into the veils of fog and seems to be in deep contemplation. [12], The image has been used on the cover of numerous books, as a signifier of romanticism, horror, mystery, or other evocative emotions. It is an iconic image that has graced the cover of the 1990 book The Ideology of the Aesthetic by Terry Eagleton and an album of Franz Schubert’s Wanderer-Fantasie by classical pianist Maurizio Pollini, among other things. He mixes blues and pinks across the sky with the mountain and rock in the distance echoing these colors. In this memorable artwork there is a flurry of mist that drifts across the landscape as the key figure stands tall, looking down on this mountainous setting. -Cheng Zheng. This section dots jutting shapes vertically up to the sky right across the canvas. He painted Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog just around the time more figures started appearing in his work.Some historians believe it is because he got married right around this time, which may have invoked some newfound appreciation for human life and human relations.Like the majority of his work, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog was not fully appreciated during its day.