The Stages of Life
c. 1834 · Oil on canvas · Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
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About this work
- Artist
- Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)
- Year
- c. 1834
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 72.5 × 94 cm
- Collection
- Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
- Movement
- Romanticism
On the shore at Utkiek near Greifswald, an old man with his back to us walks towards a group of four, two adults and two children, while five ships stand off at different distances in the evening light. The figures have been identified as Friedrich and his family, and the ships echo them: the children's small boats close inshore, the great ship in the middle drawing in its sails, the farthest vessel fading into the horizon, an allegory of lives at different distances from their end. Friedrich painted it around 1834 to 1835, five years before his death, and it reads as a meditation on his own mortality. One child holds up a Swedish pennant, a reminder that Pomerania had been Swedish in his youth. The painting is in the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig.
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
Five ships at different distances in evening light with a family on the shore, for a study, bedroom or reading corner at 24×18 in black. Dusty blue, warm grey or cream; it is a meditative picture for a quiet spot.
- Style
- Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (c. 1834)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 16×12, 24×18 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 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 The Stages of Life in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Stages of Life 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.
