| Sunset | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Caspar David Friedrich |
| Year | 1830-1835 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 25 cm × 31 cm (9.8 in × 12 in) |
| Location | Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg |
Sunset or Brothers is an 1830-1835 oil on canvas painting by Caspar David Friedrich, now in the Hermitage Museum, in St Petersburg, Russia.
Description and analysis
The painting depicts two men looking at a seascape during sunset. In this work, as in many others, Friedrich paints the figures seen from behind, so that they are seen contemplating the sea, from the viewers point of view.
The two wayfarers are both dressed in a similar traditional German costume, they also appear similar, representing the common experience that they are living. At the end of their journey, they observe, enraptured and motionless, the nature and the deep space that is visible before their eyes. Their image constitutes, in the painting, the element of union between the earth, the sea and the sky.
In the painting, the characters are depicted immersed in the contemplation of the landscape towards both are turned and that interesses them. However, it is a landscape that is shown to their gaze but that, at least in their earthly dimension, they can only admire without physically reaching it. The path they have walked, visible on the right of the painting, ends in fact at the point where they have stopped.
The work therefore suggests a great sense of melancholy, however the entire composition and, in particular, the light of twilight also suggest the possibility of an afterlife, of a fusion of man with nature.
See also
References
- "Catalogue entry".
- (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Francesca Castria, Anna Wieczorek-Niebielska (translator): Malarstwo Nowoczesne. Od romantyzmu do awangardy XX wieku. Warszawa: Arkady, 2001, s. 48. ISBN 83-213-4110-1.
- (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Agnieszka Majewska (translator): Wielki słownik malarzy. Tom II. Warszawa: HPS, 2006, s. 50. ISBN 978-83-60688-16-8
- "Catalogue entry".
- (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Francesca Castria, Anna Wieczorek-Niebielska (translator): Malarstwo Nowoczesne. Od romantyzmu do awangardy XX wieku. Warszawa: Arkady, 2001, s. 48. ISBN 83-213-4110-1.
- (in Polish) Stefano Zuffi, Agnieszka Majewska (translator): Wielki słownik malarzy. Tom II. Warszawa: HPS, 2006, s. 50. ISBN 978-83-60688-16-8
External links
Media related to Evening landscape with two men at Wikimedia Commons
