"The lonely tree" is one of Caspar David Friedrich's surprise. But what is so special about the picture? The composition is clear. In the center stands an old, gnarled oak tree. It forms the dominant, vertical core of the painting, on which the viewer immediately focuses his gaze. Only later, as the second, horizontal layer behind, does he perceive the pastel-colored meadows, mountains and the sky shimmering in the background. Once your eyes have become accustomed to the colorfulness, it begins to record details. There is a pond in the foreground, interspersed with plant tufts, reflecting the colors of the sky in darker tones. And then comes the surprise: Barely recognizable leaning a shepherd on the trunk of the oak, his sheep grazing in the vicinity. The look, encourages, keeps looking. In fact, behind the fields, almost merging with the mountains, a church spire and some smoke banners of houses peek out.

Friedrich is a master of composition, as can be seen in the "Lonely Tree". Normally, one's eyes always look first at the light sources of an image. But this painting is different. Here he focuses on the dark, powerful in the center. how else can it be that the shepherd and the small buildings go undetected for so long? And like no other Friedrich manages to create a special mood. So beautiful, so harmonious is this landscape, you could imagine it even without the big tree.

Like many of Friedrich's paintings, "Der einsame Baum" ("The Lonely Tree") carries more layers of meaning, and is not just the artistically designed image of a landscape flooded with soft morning light. On the one hand, there is the oak, a sign of the permanent, indestructible. But life and death are united in her, an indication of earthly life. Fresh leaves are still growing down, while the upper branches are already dead. And as is so often the case, man and all man-made things appear vanishingly small in the perfect nature created by God.

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Der einsame Baum by Caspar David Friedrich. Available as an art print on canvas, photo paper, watercolor board, uncoated paper or Japanese paper.
outdoors · grass · dark · single · tree · water · puddle · mountains · landscape