To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth, the Alte Nationalgalerie has partnered with the Kupferstichkabinett, another division of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, to present the first major exhibition on the work of the most important painter of German Romanticism in Berlin. Approximately 60 paintings and 50 drawings by Caspar David Friedrich from Germany and abroad will be on display, including many of his most famous works. Such a retrospective is long overdue in Berlin, not only because numerous acquisitions and public exhibitions in the Prussian capital during the artist’s lifetime contributed to his early fame, but also due to the fact that the Alte Nationalgalerie houses one of the world’s largest collections of Friedrich’s paintings. Moreover, the 1906 Deutsche Jahrhundertausstellung in Berlin marked the turning point in Friedrich’s critical legacy, as the forgotten artist was rediscovered by a new generation of viewers.

The anniversary exhibition CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH. Art for a New Age offers the first comprehensive show in decades of works by the most important painter of German Romanticism. The Hamburg presentation is a thematically organized Friedrich retrospective with more than 50 paintings, including many iconic works. The exhibition also includes some 90 drawings and selected works by his fellow artists and friends. The central theme is a new relationship between humankind and nature in Friedrich’s landscape paintings. A separate section of the exhibition devoted to Friedrich’s reception in contemporary art shows how Friedrich’s work continues to resonate today.