Caspar David Friedrich (1774 – 1840)

• Was a German painter and draughtsman.
• Friedrich's ties to Bohemia were due to three reasons: the proximity of Dresden, where he lived, to the Czech border; Czech nature, especially the mountains, which were his favourite theme; the existence of the renowned Teplice spa.
• Friedrich's first trip to Bohemia is considered to be a journey through northern Bohemia in 1807.
• However, the Dresden gallery houses a drawing of sepia from 1803, marked as Czech Landscape with a Bridge and a Chapel.
• On a trip to northern Bohemia in 1807, Friedrich came into contact with Count Franz Anton Thun-Hohenstein, who commissioned him to create an altarpiece for the castle chapel in Děčín.
• The Cross in the Mountains, also called the Děčín Altarpiece, became his first known and at the same time controversial painting.
• In July 1810, Friedrich set out for Bohemia again.
• Accompanied by his friend, the painter Georg Friedrich Kersting, he took a trip to the Krkonoše Mountains.
• During the journey, he made sketches.
• He used landscape motifs of the Bohemian Central Mountains and the Krkonoše Mountains in several of his paintings.
• The displayed painting is a crop from Georg Friedrich Kersting, Caspar Friedrich David in his Studio, 1811.

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