As with many of Caspar David Friedrich's pictures, the figures of the painting, sitting or standing, turn their backs on the viewer, thereby mysteriously drawing him in the direction of the eye, here toward the rising moon. Nature becomes the object of contemplation, even of worship.

Two men have gone over the rocks and stones of the shore far into the sea. Her attitude betrays tense expectation rather than contemplation. They give the impression that they are waiting for one of the ships sailing on the sea in the twilight of the evening. Farther forward on a cliff by the shore gracefully sit two women in colored clothes staring towards the men and the rising moon, which, half hidden by clouds, mysteriously illuminates the scene.

Two slightly offset triangles determine the geometric composition of the painting. The lower, earthly triangle runs from the anchors on the left in the foreground and from the women on the right to the standing men. Above that, the clouds form a gently curved triangle with the moon at the top.

Instead of vegetation in the foreground two anchors. They symbolize the bond with the land and the shore, which gives security and stability. The ajar device indicates the bustle of the men. In the background, almost ghostlike, the whitish sailing ships are the middle ground between the earth and the sky, directing the thoughts that glide from the firm shore into a dreamlike world, to the fickle but auspicious moonlight.

The impressive picture hangs today in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. Caspar David Friedrich, who presented the mood of the Baltic Sea in a unique, melancholy, sensual and passionate way, was in demand and appreciated in Russia as well.

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Moon rising Over the Sea by Caspar David Friedrich. Available as an art print on canvas, photo paper, watercolor board, uncoated paper or Japanese paper.
anchor · rocks · lovers · couple · fa00271 · State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia / Bridgeman Images