Caspar David Friedrich is undoubtedly a major painter of pictorial romanticism. In contrast to the realistic movement of his time, Friedrich gives an allegorical and mystical character to his landscapes, which more than nature depicts the torments of the human soul. This melancholy, very present in Friedrich's paintings, surely comes from the fact that the artist was close to death at a very young age, first with the death of his mother and then of his brother, who died saving Friedrich from drowning. Painter of the Sublime more than of the Beautiful, Friedrich's compositions earned him a great success already during his lifetime.
