Footbridge with Cross before Trees at a River
Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840)
c.1803
- Medium
- etching
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 19.9 x 28 cm (7 13/16 x 11 in.); Image: 8.8 x 14 cm (3 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Platemark: 9.2 x 15.2 cm (3 5/8 x 6 in.)
- Culture
- Germany, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Landscape was Caspar David Friedrich’s preferred subject, and for him spending time outdoors was a religious and transcendent experience. Here, the artist presented the terrain of Northern Germany as expansive and emphasized the smallness of man next to God’s creation. The fine, dense etched lines used to depict the landscape are juxtaposed with the broad strokes that make up the sky and horizon. Friedrich experimented with printmaking for only five years, and this print is one of just a few existing impressions.
