In the years after 1800, the sky became an important point of reference for art. This orientation was new and very much influenced by the spread of a scientific approach to understanding the world. The systematic taxonomy of plants and rocks had already been accomplished in the eighteenth century; the Englishman Luke Howard did the same for the sky shortly after the turn of the century. In his essay “On the Modification of Clouds,” published in 1803, he classified the fleeting formations in the sky according to specific types and gave them names for the first time. His research soon had an impact on the continent. Beginning in 1815–16, Goethe, who had developed a keen interest in meteorology, dealt intensively with the theories put forth by Howard, whose essay had already been translated into German by this point. (1)

Carried forward by his desire to bridge art and science, Goethe contacted Friedrich in 1816 in order to persuade him to make cloud paintings in the spirit of Howard’s work. The inquiry was not plucked out of the air, for Friedrich had already addressed cloud drawing as early as 1799 and then more intensely from 1806 to 1808. (2) However, the essential factor of the atmospheric might have played an even more important role in his art than the study drawings, which Goethe was probably only at best selectively aware of. Nonetheless, Friedrich did not shy from rejecting Goethe’s request. His fundamental reservations can be inferred from the letter to the poet written by the Weimar-based painter Louise Seidler, dated October 8, 1816. Friedrich was concerned that “the light, unfettered clouds [would be] slavishly wedged in these categories.“ (3)

It took a push from another artist several years later in order to get Friedrich interested once again in the subject of the sky and clouds. Under the influence of the Norwegian Johan Christian Dahl, who also lived in Dresden and was one of the most prominent oil sketch painters of his time, Friedrich devoted himself to this evolving technique for a short period of time in the autumn of 1824. Only three of his sketches have survived, including Evening and Cloudy Evening Sky. (4) A narrow gap is just opening up between the clouds, whose intense violet is the defining color of this composition, allowing us a glimpse of the sky. This light blue contrasts with the color of the clouds. Further down, the pale reflection of the sunken sun eventually defines the coloristic appearance of the sky, accentuated by several horizontal bands of light. The composition is concluded by a narrow strip of terrain. As if to confirm what he had seen, he scratched the time of day, month, and year into the still-wet paint in the lower right. (5)

Markus Bertsch, in: exh. cat. Hamburg 2023, p. 254.

(1) Exh. cat. Frankfurt am Main/Weimar 1994, p. 518.
(2) Grummt 2011, vol. 1, pp. 124–33, nos. 103–07, 109 and pp. 436–43, nos. 460–70.
(3) Quoted from Benz 1941, p. 139. Cf. Lichtenstern 1974, esp. p. 81; Busch 1994, pp. 523 f.
(4) Börsch-Supan/Jähnig 1973, p. 392, no. 318.
(5) “Abend September 1824,“ (“Evening September 1824“).