Caspar David Friedrich German, 1774-1840

W. Langguth, Greifswald, grandson of Friedrich's brother Adolf (by 1901)
W. Lewien
Sale: Christie's, London, 6 October 1996, lot 4
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Munich, Haus der Kunst, Ernste Spiele, Der Geist der Romantik in der Deutschen Kunst 1790-1990, 1995, p. 124, no. 156, (illustrated)
Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Innenleben. Die Kunst des Interieurs. Vermeer bis Kabakov, 1998-99, pp. 138-139, no. 38 (illustrated)

H. Ploetz, Philipp Otto Runge und Caspar David Friedrich. Zwei pommersche Künstler, Stettin, 1908, p. 4
Emmy Voigtländer, Zwei Innenbilder von Caspar David Friedrich, Kunstwanderer, 1929-30, vol. XI, p. 371
Fritz Nemitz, Caspar David Friedrich. Die unendliche Landschaft, Munich, 1938, p. 42
Helmut Börsch-Supan, Die Bildgestaltung bei Caspar David Friedrich, (doctoral dissertation), Berlin, 1958, Munich, 1960, p. 9, note 1
Karl Wilhelm Jähning & Helmut Börsch-Supan, Caspar David Friedrich, Munich, 1973, pp. 37 & 399-400, no. 334, illustrated
Helmut  Börsch-Supan, L'opera completa di Caspar David Friedrich, Milan, 1976, p. 103, no. 163, illustrated

Painted in 1825.

According to Aubert and Voigtländer the present work depicts Caroline Friedrich, the artist's wife, in their Dresden apartment at Terrassenufer 13. Aubert, who saw the work shortly after it had been painted, noted: 'woman in sunny stairwell. Sunlight falls in from above. Otherwise in shade. Below a greenish door. Unique and original.'

The forty-four-year-old Friedrich, a shy man and seemingly confirmed bachelor, married the young Caroline Bommer in January 1818. Caroline gave birth to two daughters, Emma and Agnes Adelheid, in 1819 and 1823, and to a son, Gustav Adolf, born in 1824. The ensuing domestic happiness resulted in one of Friedrich’s most productive periods, and he depicted Caroline in some of his most lyrical and accomplished works.

Painted on an intimate scale, Caroline auf der Treppe contrasts in its composition with the limitless horizons of Friedrich’s landscapes, yet shares their symbolic meaning and can thus be seen as a typical expression of his spiritual preoccupations. For Friedrich, even apparently simple scenes abounded with symbolic meaning. In the present work the dark interior, signifying the present earthly life, is being deliberately contrasted with the bright ‘divine’ realm of the view beyond. In this way the painting can be read as an allegory of man’s ultimate resurrection, the sunlight being representative of God.

Death, transience and eternity were themes that Friedrich explored constantly in his paintings. In its symbolism and compositional structure Caroline auf der Treppe relates to two interiors, which also feature Friedrich’s wife: Frau am Fenster of 1822  and Frau mit Leuchter of 1825. In the former work, Caroline is depicted looking out of a window in Friedrich's studio. The view extends over the river Elbe to the opposite shore, which symbolizes Paradise. The support dividing the window panes suggest the cross of Christ, while the sombre closed interior represents the earthly world.

Caroline auf der Treppe remained in the artist's family until the turn of the nineteenth century when, together with a number of other works, it was damaged in a fire at the Friedrichhaus in Greifswald in 1901.