Monk by the Sea
1808–1810 · Oil on canvas · Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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About this work
- Artist
- Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)
- Year
- 1808–1810
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 110 × 171.5 cm
- Collection
- Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Movement
- Romanticism
A single small figure stands on a low dune before a dark sea and an immense grey sky that takes up most of the canvas. There is no framing tree, no ship, no path: Friedrich originally painted two sailing boats on the horizon and then removed them, leaving a composition more radical than anything in landscape painting of its time. He worked on it in Dresden from 1808 to 1810, changing it repeatedly, and showed it at the Berlin Academy exhibition in 1810 with its pendant The Abbey in the Oakwood hung beneath it. At the wish of the fifteen-year-old crown prince, King Frederick William III of Prussia bought both pictures. They still hang side by side in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Friedrich himself described the monk brooding on the unfathomable beyond, and the painting has become a touchstone of Romantic solitude.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A tiny figure under an immense grey sky, the most radical empty picture of its age, for a bedroom, study or minimal living room at 24×16 in black. A pale grey, white or charcoal wall; hang it alone with nothing else on that wall.
- Style
- Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1808–1810)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- dramatic, moody
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 18×12, 24×16 in — 18×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×16 above a console or sideboard.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; oak lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Monk by the Sea in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Monk by the Sea painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
The full-bleed edition
The painting printed edge-to-edge at its own proportions, filling the whole sheet — and available on gallery-wrapped canvas.
