Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, 1818
Caspar David Friedrich
Oil on canvas · 90.5 x 71 cm
Three figures peer over a dizzying white cliff edge into blue water.
Figures peer over brilliant white chalk cliffs framing a sparkling blue Baltic. Friedrich turns a real coastal view into a meditation on nature's grandeur, the jagged rocks and vertigo of the drop pulling the eye down to the tiny, distant sails.
What you're looking at
Three figures, and none of them is looking at the same thing: one crawls to the edge on hands and knees to peer straight down, one points out to sea, one leans back against a tree with his arms folded. Friedrich painted it not long after his marriage and the three are generally taken to be himself, his wife and his brother. Branches close over the top of the scene like an arch, so the whole view is something glimpsed through a frame within the frame.
On a Frame TV
About 3:4. The clean crop takes either the overhanging branches or the drop below, and the picture is the relationship between them, so use the matted file. Brilliant white chalk against strong blue — high contrast, and comfortable in a bright room.
Kunst Museum Winterthur | Reinhart am Stadtgarten · Visit it in Winterthur →
- 4K master file (3840px+)
- Samsung Frame TV–ready crop
- Phone wallpaper crop
- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with Caspar David Friedrich.
