Museum Folkwang Collection Online
Gebirgslandschaft mit Regenbogen
  • Caspar David Friedrich

  • Gebirgslandschaft mit Regenbogen, 1809/10

  • Mountain Landscape with Rainbow
  • Oil on canvas
  • 69 x 102 cm
  • Acquired 1939 with the support of the City of Essen and the NSDAP Gauleitung of the City of Essen, restored 1950 to the Hirschland family and left to the Museum Folkwang as the legacy of Dr Georg Hirschland.
  • Inv. G 46
  • CommentaryEven in his lifetime, Friedrich's painting was seen as the epitome of Romantic art. The oft-repeated motif of an individual figure regarding a landscape or a body of water embodies an oft-expressed experience of nature still associated with this period today: Faced with the magnitude and breadth of the world around them, man senses his own smallness and forlornness.
    ‘Mountain Landscape with Rainbow’, together with ‘Landscape with Rainbow’ (formerly Weimar; missing since 1945) of the same period, form a pair which varies a composition developed on mathematical principles. The painting in Essen is an excellent example of this method. The center of the image is filled by a high mountain whose peak lies at the intersection of the diagonals. Low hills provide a gently undulating horizon on both sides, dividing the painting along the lines of the golden section and the strangely pale, overarching rainbow is linked with a line suggested in the lower half of the painting to form an ellipse, encircling the foreground, middle ground and background.
    In the person of the wanderer, a self-portrait of the artist, are bound a feeling of isolation and a recognition of a higher order, opening to the viewer the experience of a – as Friedrich Schlegel called it – universal poetry uniting beauty and truth.
  • Provenancevermutlich seit 1810–[...]: im Besitz des Großherzogs von Weimar; wohl von Goethe für Karl August erworben | vermutlich 1932−1932: Paul Cassirer, Berlin | 1932−09.11.1938: Slg. Dr. Georg Hirschland, Essen | 09.11.1938−01.04.1939: Depositum Museum Folkwang im Stadtarchiv Essen | 01.04.1939−1950: Museum Folkwang, Essen | 1950: Restitution und Vergleich mit den Erben von Dr. Georg Hirschland | seit 1950: als Vermächtnis Dr. Georg Hirschland dem Museum Folkwang, Essen, durch die Familie übereignet
  • Obj_Id: 3,004
  • Obj_Internet_S: ja
  • Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art
  • Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw):
  • Obj_Creditline_S: Museum Folkwang, Essen, Gemäldesammlung
  • Obj_Title1_S: Gebirgslandschaft mit Regenbogen
  • Obj_Title2_S: Mountain Landscape with Rainbow
  • Obj_PartDescription_S (Titelerg):
  • Obj_SpareMField01_M (Alle Titel): Gebirgslandschaft mit Regenbogen Mountain Landscape with Rainbow
  • Obj_Dating_S: 1809/10
  • Jahr von: 1,809
  • Jahr bis: 1,810
  • Obj_IdentNr_S: G 46
  • Obj_IdentNrSort_S: G 0046
  • Obj_Classification_S (Objtyp): Painting
  • Obj_Crate_S: 69 x 102 cm
  • Obj_Material_S: Oil on canvas
  • Obj_Technique_S:
  • Obj_SpareSField01_S (Mat./Tech.): Oil on canvas
  • Obj_AccNote_S (Erwerb): Acquired 1939 with the support of the City of Essen and the NSDAP Gauleitung of the City of Essen, restored 1950 to the Hirschland family and left to the Museum Folkwang as the legacy of Dr Georg Hirschland.
  • Obj_PermanentLocation_S (Standort):
  • Obj_Condition1_S (Druckerei):
  • Obj_Condition2_S (Auflage):
  • Obj_Subtype_S (Genre):
  • Obj_Rights_S:
Commentary
Artists
Provenance

Even in his lifetime, Friedrich's painting was seen as the epitome of Romantic art. The oft-repeated motif of an individual figure regarding a landscape or a body of water embodies an oft-expressed experience of nature still associated with this period today: Faced with the magnitude and breadth of the world around them, man senses his own smallness and forlornness.
‘Mountain Landscape with Rainbow’, together with ‘Landscape with Rainbow’ (formerly Weimar; missing since 1945) of the same period, form a pair which varies a composition developed on mathematical principles. The painting in Essen is an excellent example of this method. The center of the image is filled by a high mountain whose peak lies at the intersection of the diagonals. Low hills provide a gently undulating horizon on both sides, dividing the painting along the lines of the golden section and the strangely pale, overarching rainbow is linked with a line suggested in the lower half of the painting to form an ellipse, encircling the foreground, middle ground and background.
In the person of the wanderer, a self-portrait of the artist, are bound a feeling of isolation and a recognition of a higher order, opening to the viewer the experience of a – as Friedrich Schlegel called it – universal poetry uniting beauty and truth.