“Presently, I am engaged in the creation of a great painting, in which I intend to depict the mystery of the grave and the future. That which can only be seen and understood through faith, and shall forever remain a mystery to the finite knowledge of Mankind: (even to me, what I aim to portray and how I intend to do so, is in some manner itself a mystery).”
– From a transcript of a letter from Friedrich, possibly to Johannes Karl Ludwig Schulze
Friedrich is probably referring to the painting The Abbey in the Oak Wood.