User:Ony97/The Sea of Ice

The Sea of Ice, (German: Das Eismeer), 1823-1824, is an oil painting by the famous German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Before 1826 this painting was known as The Polar Sea.^[1] The painting is about a shipwreck in the Arctic. This article takes a look at background information on Friedrich, Romanticism, Romanticism in the context of Friedrich, the description of the painting, an analysis of the painting, and lastly the sublime. This painting is currently being shown in the Kunsthalle Hamburg, in Hamburg, Germany.

Background on Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich was born on September 5th, 1774 in Greifswald, Germany which is now part of Sweden. He grew up as a Protestant. ^[2] In terms of his art studies Friedrich started out with a drawing teacher from the University of Griefswald called Johann Gottfried Quistorp. He went on to study at the Akademi for de Skønne Kunster in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1794-1798. After this Friedrich decided to study at the Hochschule der Bildenen Künste in Dresden, Germany. ^[3] Friedrich decided to live the rest of his life in Dresden^[4] where he died on May 7th, 1840.

Romanticism

The Romantic movement emerged at the end of the eighteenth century. Romanticism was both an artistic movement and an approach to life. It rejected the Enlightenment ideas of rationalism and intellect in favor of religion, emotion, and culture. A major theme in romanticism is the focus on nature as the subject.^[5]

In the 19th century many Germans were interested in the Arctic.^[6] Many German artists were influenced to paint about the Arctic,^[7] including Friedrich. In German Romanticism the North was seen as a positive thing while the classic south was a negative thing.^[8]

Friedrich and Romanticism

Like many other painters in the 19th century Friedrich, decided to focus on landscapes as the main subjects of his paintings.^[9] Friedrich's style is considered to fit under the category of Romanticism because of his paintings of Nature. His goal was to create on the canvas the images in his mind.^[10] Through his paintings Friedrich attempts to show the spiritual and religious meaning of nature. Friedrich is famous for creating spiritual meaning in many of his paintings.^[11]

Description

The Sea of Ice was composed in one of Friedrich's studios near Dresden.^[12] This painting is clearly based on the Arctic, even though, Friedrich had never visited the Arctic.^[13] It has been suggested that Friedrich gained his knowledge about the Arctic from the William Edward Parry's expedition to the Arctic. But because there were multiple reports and articles about the Arctic in Germany it has never been confirmed that Friedrich used Parry's expedition to paint The Sea of Ice.^[14] Friedrich also gained knowledge about icebergs through studying on them on the Elbe.^[15]

The Sea of Ice represents what Friedrich believes the Arctic look likes.^[16] In the foreground of the painting there are small icebergs layered on top of each other, which makes them almost look like steps. In the background, however, the icebergs are crushed together to form a tower of ice.^[17] These icebergs are very large and suggest something terrible has happened.^[18] Right next to this massive ice tower is a minuscule detail that is not the subject of the painting. It is a shipwreck.^[19]

Analysis

The ship wreck in The Sea of Ice suggests the idea that nature will always be superior to men. Ice is a place of death and nature will always defeat anyone who tries to intrude on it.^[20]

As a child Friedrich suffered a traumatic experience which involved his brother, Johann Christoffer on the 8th of December, 1787 falling through the Ice and dying. It has been rumored that Friedrich might have forced his brother to go onto the ice. The landscape of the The Sea of Ice creates a meaning of death and Friedrich's experience could have directly influenced him to paint this.^[21]

There is a theory that Friedrich painted this piece of work to explain Germany. Just as the ship is frozen in ice, Germany is considered to be a frozen wasteland politically with no hope for improvement.^[22]

Sublime

The theory of the sublime combines the emotion of horror and pleasure.^[23] The main theorists of the sublime are Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Schiller. Nature has always been associated with the idea of the Sublime. Towards the end of the 18th century paintings of the Arctic were associated with the theory of the sublime. There has, however, been a lot of debate wether or not the painting The Sea of Ice fits the theory of the Sublime.^[24] There is clearly a lot of danger in this painting due to the shards of ice, but these pieces of ice can also be seen as beautiful.^[25] The reason why there has been debate about whether or not this painting fits the sublime is that it is not clear if the viewer can actually be a part of the painting, which is a major element of the sublime.^[26]

Notes