Moonrise over the Sea
1822 · Oil on canvas · Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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About this work
- Artist
- Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)
- Year
- 1822
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 55 × 71 cm
- Collection
- Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Movement
- Romanticism
Two women and a man sit on rocks at the edge of the sea and watch the moon rise through a band of cloud, while two sailing ships ghost towards the shore on a light wind. The scene is probably the Baltic coast of Friedrich's native Pomerania. The Berlin banker Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener visited Friedrich in Dresden in August 1822 and ordered a pair of landscapes, a morning and an evening; this was the evening picture, its companion The Lonely Tree. Friedrich reported both finished on 1 November 1822. Wagener kept them until his death, and in 1861 his bequest became the founding collection of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, where the painting remains in the Alte Nationalgalerie. A larger, earlier version of the subject, from 1821, is in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Three figures on rocks watching the moon rise through cloud with ghostly ships, a night scene for a bedroom, bathroom or landing at 16×24 in black. A navy, charcoal or soft grey wall; it pairs with Two Men Contemplating the Moon.
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1822)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- dramatic, moody
- Rooms
- living room, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
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 Moonrise over the Sea in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Moonrise over the Sea painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
The full-bleed edition
The same plate printed edge-to-edge, filling the whole sheet — bold and immersive.

























