# Church and Graveyard in the Snow by Moonlight

- By: Carl Blechen (German, 1798-1840)
- Date: 1827
- Medium: Lithograph, with gray tone block on cream wove paper
- Classification: Print
- Dimensions: Image: 41.4 × 35.9 cm (16 5/16 × 14 3/16 in.); Plate: 43.4 × 37.8 cm (17 1/8 × 14 15/16 in.); Sheet: 55.9 × 45 cm (22 1/16 × 17 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Germany
- Credit line: Suzanne Lord Folds, Harold Joachim, William McCallin McKee, John H. Wrenn Memorial and Prints and Drawings Purchase endowment funds
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/148401)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/bc640578-8047-defb-844b-0531929425fe/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Blechen’s melancholy, monumental lithograph makes eloquent use of a gray tint block to evoke a snowy landscape and a sense of stillness. A lone man, cloak fluttering in the wind, has appeared surreptitiously at night to pay his respects to the dead. Perhaps in this moment he encounters his secret lover’s final resting place. Momentarily overcome with grief, he steadies himself on the plinth beneath a sculpture of the Madonna and Child.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0