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Caper David Friedrich -by Johann Karl Bähr |
That is what the great German artist Caper David Friedrich believed. We can observe that element in his paintings, too. While you are looking at the paintings done by the German Artists, and if you feel that you are emotionally charged and standing on a German landscape, the painting must be done by the master German artist Caper David Friedrich.
Friedrich was an engineer with his own set of tool to move his art. He was the man who painted
everything so subtle, so romantic and so symbolic that any art lover will be
fascinated. These are the aspects embedded in his paintings: the use of dark and light colours, the masterly execution of
every hue of the colours, and a symbolic meaning embedded into the paintings.
Landscape Artists of Germany: The German land has produced a good number of amazing artists. Here are some of the prominent names. Their work
is narrated and displayed here. The leading artists are:
1 Caper David Friedrich (Born 1774 Died
1840) 2 Gerhard Richter (Born 1932 )
3 Albrecht Durer (1471 -
1528) 4 Hans Holbein the Younger
(1493-1543)
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OIl on Canvas Caspar David Friedrich, Memories of the Giant Mountains, The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia |
Paintings by Caper David Friedrich: If anyone has changed the face of Landscape
Painting, we can certainly say that he was the German artist Casper David
Friedrich. He was born in Dresden, Germany, in the year 1774 and died
in 1840. Friedrich was the most famous German artist of his time.
Whereas for an artist, to connect himself or herself with art and emotion
is a pivotal phenomenon; the artist Friedrich had a focus that was
full of emotions.
In the case of German artist Friedrich, the emotional element was
quite intense. It helped him to become a principal figure in the art movement
that was known as the Romantic Movement. His sense of capturing the beauty
embedded in nature; his ability to make a scene a symbolic one; all of these
aspects made him a memorable artist. Look at any of his paintings: on seeing
his landscapes with close scrutiny, we can find the human helplessness embedded
in the paintings. He always endeavoured to insert the majestic element of
sublime in his art. That was perhaps the critical aspect of the romantic
paintings; that was the element for which the movement of romanticism was
known.
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Caspar David Friedrich Moonrise Over The Sea |
When we see the
paintings of Friedrich, the artist's intense love for nature is the first
thing that we could not avoid noticing. He was a man with the capability of an
x-ray machine embedded in his eyes. That aspect makes his paintings so easily
recognisable.
About the composition part of his painting frames, Caper David Friedrich would put a
figure on the front side. Thereafter he would put the entire expanse of the
landscape behind that figure. This element infused immediate liveliness on the
canvas. It seems that the landscape is the background. That made nature a
centre stage, a prominent aspect in his paintings.
The infusion of a
spiritual factor in the landscape painting was perhaps a novel
idea. Friedrich hunted for the element of spirituality. He did it by
observing nature very closely. He spread the bounds of trees, hills,
mountaintops and roaring waves and inserted those enlarged elements in his art
pieces. All these ingredients have created a lasting spiritual effect in his
paintings.
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Gerhard Richter: The painter who has changed the painting landscapes of
post-war Germany is Gerhard Richter. Born in 1932 he has acquired his fame and
a lot of praise from the critics of the twentieth century. He made his place
among the top artists of Germany once his masterpieces were exhibited in the
year 2005. He is regarded as the best living painter of our present period.
During his life, he has got a long index of the prizes. That has made him such
a prominent artist of the modern state of Germany.
Gerhard Richter studied art in Germany, and he also teaches art in Germany.
You know the learning and teaching are fast friends. Gerhard Richter is
the most versatile artist of our time. He had painted a range of photorealistic
paintings, too. His work is mostly displayed in the famous galleries of
Germany.
Most of Gerhard Richter's work shows the illusionist spaces. But these
spaces look quite natural, and that is one of the main components of his
painting. In one of his paintings titled "Woods", which is
given here, we can see how masterly Gerhard has infused the space in the
landscape.
In this masterpiece painting, we can feel the illusion of the objects like
the trees, the background of the trees, and the space between the objects
masterly depicted. Such a depiction of the art makes an artist so famous and so
memorable.
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Gerhard Richter Jindřich Nosek (NoJin), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
In his paintings, he tries to
understand and convey the real word that is in our surrounding. He combines
reality and illusion with the help of his artistic attempts. This wonderful
artistic process has made him the most popular artist of present-day
Germany. He says: "My sole concern is the object. Otherwise, I
would not take so much trouble over my choice of subjects; otherwise, I would
not paint at all".
Here he says about his perspective in connection with the art of painting.
He says: "I do not have a specific picture in my mind's eye. I want to end
up with a picture that I have not planned. This method of arbitrary choice,
chance, inspiration and destruction may produce a specific type of picture, but
it never produces a predetermined picture." For Gerhard Richter, each art
piece should have a visual logic which the artist has developed in his mind's
eye.
For an artist like Gerhard Richter, a final painting must emerge as an
unpredictable outcome from the artist. There should be less planning and
more spontaneity; that is what we can learn after looking at his paintings. For
a great artist like Gerhard, making an art piece is just like going through an
unconscious process.
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Albrecht Durer: If we talk about the German painters, and if we want to know
about the fifteenth-century paintings of Germany, we cannot miss looking at the
artwork of a wonderful painter Albrecht Durer.
Albrecht Durer got his presence in the art word recorded at the early age
of twenty. It was due to his leaning to execute wood art. But he had painted
wonderful landscapes.
Here is the masterpiece work by Albrecht Durer. This painting
is Gouache and Watercolour on paper. This painting is of the
courtyard of the castle known as Innsbruck. The painting is done on paper.
The materials used are gouache and watercolours. It was mainly used for doing preparatory work in those days. Look at the painting and feel the magic of the light plays in the painting. The light falling on the street, the light falling on the walls. Durer was known for his precise lining work. We can see in this painting the scheme of the building and the tower at a distance. The work is perfect from its architectural perspective. Albrecht Durer was a German artist. He was born in the city of Nuremberg in the year 1471. He is considered one of the famous renaissance painters of Europe.
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Albrecht Dürer, Self Portrait |
Durer's paintings are wonderful masterpieces. However, what attracts our prime attention is the bulk of the drawings and a list of the portraits he had done.
Durer was perhaps one of the few artists in entire Europe who had done that much drawings and portraits. His leisurely-done self-portraits can be turned into masterpieces. Durer painted in oil, gouache, and watercolour. He was fortunate for one thing; he had a fairly good number of clients to support his art, mainly the art of portrait painting.
When we look at the portraits he
did, we can say that he owned a wonderful art of handling the lines and shades
in the art pieces he executed whether for himself or for his clients. Albrecht
Durer, the artist was also a good traveller. He travelled much in the continent
of Europe. That made him acquainted with many good clients. They all praised
his art; they provided him with a good number of commissions. Lucky man.
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Jane Seymour, Queen of England -by Hans Holbein |
Hans Holbein the Younger: In the world of art, it is said
with pride that the German artists have contributed a very big stock of
masterpieces to the world of art. Whether they may be the artists of a bygone
era or they may be the present-day artists. The name of the
artist Hans Holbein the Younger is one of these artists.
Hans Holbein the Younger belonged to a group of artists of Germany. He
painted beautiful landscapes: his landscapes included the mountain peaks of the Alps, the riversides of Rhine, Danube, Elbe and Kiel. These rivers flow the
water to the sea; and after seeing the magical scenes of the riverfronts and
the river banks, the artists flow the colours on canvasses and paper. To paint
the aspect of nature is a wonderful representation of God's creation. Those
representations depicted the beauty of these rivers and the mountains of
Germany.
Hans Holbein the Younger is known for the realist style of painting. It is
because he had adopted that style to depict the mountains, open plains and the
river banks looking as realistic as possible. Hans Holbein the Younger loved
nature: that love led him to the river banks and the mountain tops. He flowed
his vision alongside the flowing waters; he raised his eyes up to the peaks of
the mountain Alps. He wonderfully had reinvented his own mental images of these
beautiful landscapes of the German land on his canvasses.
In those days when Hans Holbein the Younger was alive, the art of
portrait making was in good demanded. The artists did get commissions from the
royal families and the wealthy traders. Hans Holbein the Younger also made
several wonderful portraits during his career as an artist.
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Lais of Corinth -by Hans Holbein |
If his art were to talk about, one thing must
be told. He had such a passion for art that while painting the landscapes, he
would never compromise in the matter of the outside surface and appearance of
the scene.
He took the lesson of
symbolism from the pages of the book that was read much during his life. He
endeavoured to infuse symbolism in his paintings. Among other factors,
there were two prominent aspects in his paintings: one, the masterly creation
of illusions on his canvasses; two, the paradoxes he had created through the
excellently painted canvases.
Landscapes Done by Friedrich (Portrait is done by Gerhard von Kugelgen)
Caspar David Friedrich had tried to convey the artist's emotional and subjective response to the natural surrounding. Through his landscapes paintings, Caper David Friedrich executed a colourful representation of Mother Earth; he also put into the painting one strange thing: the metaphysical side of the human mind. [All the paintings are in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons]
Paintings Done by Albrecht Durer



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