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 exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. 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 16×24 or 24×36 in black. Dusty blue, warm grey or cream; it is a meditative picture for a quiet spot.
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (c. 1834)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- grand
- 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 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
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.
