“Monk by the Sea”
In Caspar Friedrich’s painting, “Monk by the Sea”, he uses pale and dark colors to set the mood of the painting so the viewers have a better understanding of what is going on in the picture. He portrays the monk as the subject matter in the picture. He creates many emotional landscapes that are very accurate. He also uses very austere compositions that set tone. The colors he uses creates a symbol of how the monk is really feeling and why he is at the sea at this time.
The painting shows a tracheotomy with its colossal sky, a narrow, dark band of sea and the sparse strap of seashore. The monk is seen from behind as a tiny figure and is placed exactly where the sky reaches its deepest point and the coast extends to the sea. This open motive shows an empty and desolate landscape in pale colors. The monk not only experiences the emptiness and vastness but his own meaninglessness and loneliness in front of God and oblivion. The motive of this landscape painting consists of single motives of different origins. It is reduced to the essential and somehow an abstraction. Because of this the painting is striking, the steps almost into the painting to enter the scene and is able to empathize an individual interpretation of symbolism.
The endlessness the monk faces could be explained as an expression of the oblivion, on which the rising moon is shining. Just as well the endlessness of the universe could be the major theme. In this work the difference to popular landscape painting is obvious, and therefore Friedrich is known as a painter of modernity. The colors describe a lot. When people see dark, pale colors, they immediately think of depression, loneliness, hopelessness, ect. Friedrich has compressed space in a manner anticipating abstract art.
