Wandering Between Two Mists

The view of The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog offers a glimpse at awe-inspiring infinity and, some even say, God himself. The mists that cover all but tell-tale features of the ground below and beyond create a landscape so poignant as to be considered divine. It is this ability of Caspar David Friedrich to add such depth to his landscapes that leads Simon Morley to say his art is imbued with the power of religion. However, Stefan Lüddemann reports that Friedrich might have different ideas in mind for his abilities. A curator of a museum in Essen, Germany says that he actually filled his paintings with principles of the secret society he belonged to, the Freemasons. These contrasting opinions both show that Friedrich's art was more modern and advanced than the average romanticist.

The turn of the nineteenth century saw a general movement away from the intense religious values society had held in the past. Many romantic artists like Friedrich noticed that fewer people were looking for religion within churches, so they sought to help people find it within art instead. Morley says in his article "To Infinity and Beyond," that Friedrich was more of a transitional figure, "with one foot in the world of traditional Christian faith and the other in the far less charted seas of what might be called modern 'religiosity', or the unhoused religious impulse." He claims that Friedrich was less interested in replacing religion than he was with creating art that served as a religious experience to his viewers. Morley compares Friedrich to William Blake, a romanticist that had similar motivations, albeit for a different artistic medium. Returning to The Wanderer, Morley lauds it as a piece of art that embodies the spirit of transcendence, the quest for heights yet unseen by others. For Friedrich and his wanderer, to reach these heights must have meant to reach the presence of God himself.

The Wanderer is probably one of the least blatantly religious works in Friedrich's repertoire, yet Hubertus Gassner thinks the looks of much of Freidrich's art are deceiving. Stefan Lüddemann of the Atlantic Times writes about Gassner's 2006 Friedrich exhibition and the theory it puts forth. According to Lüddemann, "[Gassner] believes the artist incorporated the Freemasons’ worldview into his paintings as a kind of secret message." He disagrees with most art historians who paint Friedrich as the quintessential, hopeless romantic of Germany, and instead posits that all of his art was precisely composed to embody his hidden ideals. The curator goes even beyond the idea of hidden Freemason principles, and boldly arranges his exhibition in a way that shows Friedrich as the forerunner to modern media art. Gassner says that Friedrich had tendencies to couple pieces of art with specific musical works, and that he would paint entire series on certain subjects. It seems the artist transcended romanticism altogether.

Lüddemann's journalism provides a concise summary of Gassner's argument, but it provides few examples of art that support it. Morley's article provides more evidence of in depth research and gives more examples that support his thesis. That plus the fact that Gassner's suspicions of Friedrich's involvement with the Freemasons is fairly new make it seem as though Morley is more likely to be correct. However, both men have shown that Friedrich was ahead of his time on a number of things. Morley describes how he was aware of society's changing values and that people would need to find God somewhere other than church. Gassner's knowledge of the trends in Friedrich's art show that he was more organized and thoughtful than the average romantic artist. So, the sum of these opposing views is that Caspar David Friedrich's ability as an artist transcends his motivations for creating his art. Those reasons will remain up to each individual wanderer's interpretation, obscured by the fog.