A double show of paintings and drawings by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (SKD) will make Dresden a hotspot for several months in the 250th anniversary year of the birth of the painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). Starting in mid-August 2024, the Albertinum and Kupferstich-Kabinett will present masterpieces by the German artist. "Caspar David Friedrich can only be understood so profoundly in Dresden, the city of his creation, close to the art that preoccupied him and the landscape that made him a Romantic, where it all began," an SKD statement said Thursday, referring to the title. The ticket pre-sale for the presentation entitled "Where it all began" begins thereafter on September 5, exactly one year before Friedrich's round birthday.
The city on the Elbe was the center of life of the Greifswald-born artist for more than four decades, during which he created the main works that are now regarded worldwide as the most important testimonies to German Romanticism. The Albertinum exhibits until early 2025 its paintings with landscapes of great masters of the Dresden Gallery - Jacob van Ruisdael, Salvatore Rosa and Claude Lorrain - who inspired Friedrich, and works by contemporaries.
The Kupferstich-Kabinett shows until November 2024 drawings from the collection, which Friedrich made on walks through the surroundings of Dresden and on trips home to Greifswald and Rügen or the Krkonoše Mountains. According to the information, the presentation focuses on the artistic process of capturing nature. With a unique manuscript is to be seen beyond that a special treasure, Friedrich expresses itself in it to works of contemporaries and puts art-theoretical considerations on.
The SKD keeps with 14 paintings and over 70 drawings one of the largest Konvolute at works of the Frühromantikers at all. In addition, there are loans from the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Museum Folkwang Essen or from Prague, Vienna or Madrid. According to SKD, the exhibition and accompanying program with references to the city and region are the "final chord" of the artist's tribute in Germany - to be followed in 2025 by a major retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum New York.
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