Friedrich’s extraordinary composition breaks with the conventions of landscape painting at the time: we search in vain for some horizon or piece of sky on it. Instead, a rock face takes up the upper area of the painting; further down it widens into a cave; at its entrance we see two soldiers wearing helmets. They are standing in front of enormous, partially worked boulders, which are unfinished stone memorials or tombstones. The foreground shows a grass-covered site with individual graves distributed across it. (1)

The point of departure for Friedrich’s unusual idea was the studies he made at the end of June 1811 when he was hiking in the Harz Mountains and visited a cave on the Hartenberg, near Wernigerode. (2) The layout of his painting is based on these impressions, but the tombs lend a charge to the subject. They transform the experience of nature into a landscape of memory and commemoration.

The obelisk to the left of the cave’s entrance, which is probably meant to represent the most recent of the monuments depicted, stands out because of its bright tone. It is decorated with reliefs of winged geniuses of death, crossed swords, and the letters “GAF” above them. (3) The political connotation is articulated by the inscription on the pedestal “EDLER JUINGLING, VATERLANDS-ERRETTER” (NOBLE YOUTH, SAVIOR OF THE FATHERLAND). On the left and right edges of the picture three more tombs can be seen, whose darker stone clearly distinguishes them from the obelisks and are probably intended to be of older date. Some of these also have inscriptions that relate to a political and martial context. (4)

Friedrich’s extremely thorough preparation of certain details of the painting was based on a construction drawing with three perspectival studies of the tomb with a slightly opened lid that can be seen at the bottom right edge of the painting. (5) A construction drawing also survives for the grave in ruins in the immediate foreground, which is already partly sunk into the ground and appears to be grown over by the surrounding nature. (6) With the martial attributes of a sword, maces, and two halberds, its tombstone bears the inscription “HERMAN,” whereas in his painting Friedrich decided on the Latinized form “ARMINIUS.” We are thus looking at the fictional tomb of the Chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe, who inflicted a grave defeat on the Romans in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE.

Only on careful examination is a snake in the colors of the French Tricolor visible in the upper area of the dilapidated tomb. (7) With reference to the situation at the time, the French occupiers were thus characterized as the epitome of evil. But combining the motif with the tomb of Arminius also makes it clear that Friedrich was hoping that a war of liberation would in the near future defeat Napoleon’s Grande Armée as successfully as Arminius had defeated the Romans more than 1800 years earlier. (8)

Markus Bertsch, in: exh. cat. Hamburg 2023, p. 168–171

(1) For this painting, see, among others, Aubert 1911, pp. 613 f.; Börsch-Supan/Jähnig 1973, pp. 325 f., no. 205; exh. cat. Hamburg 1974, pp. 194 f.; Howoldt 2006; Leppien 2006, pp. 10–15; Vogel 2006, pp. 104 f.; Zuchowski 2021, pp. 362–69; Grave 2023, pp. 131–34.
(2) Grummt 2011, vol. 2, pp. 629 f., no. 651. On another study, see ibid., pp. 628 f., no. 650. See also Howoldt 2006, pp. 59 f.; Grave 2023, p. 131.
(3) This series of letters has yet to be convincingly deciphered.
(4) On the tomb on the left edge, one can read with difficulty “FRIEDE DEINER GRUFT / RETTER IN NOT“ (PEACE OF YOUR GRAVE, SAVIOR IN NEED), on the one opposite it on the right, one can decipher “DES EDEL GEFALLENEN FUIR” (HONORABLY FALLEN FOR) and “FREIHEIT UND RECHT. F.A.K.” (FREEDOM AND JUSTICE F.A.K.).
(5) Grummt 2011, vol. 2, pp. 641 f., no. 669. Friedrich also used this drawing for the tombstone in the cave of his painting Rocky Valley (The Tomb of Arminius) (cat. 89).
(6) Grummt 2011, vol. 2, p. 641, no. 667.
(7) Börsch-Supan/Jähnig 1973, p. 325.
(8) Howoldt 2006, p. 2; Vogel 2006, p. 105; Grave 2023, pp. 131–34.