Every painter should have a suit of armour hanging in their studio, and those of German Romantics, Pre-Raphaelites and others, of Don Quixote.
Lessing
The horse in chivalry, carrying Mazeppa or Haidamak insurgent, in the circus, racing riderless through Rome, and in Vernet’s studio.
More common themes: mist and mountains, castles and ruins, and the Dresden skyline.
Gnarled, twisted, wizened and barren trees are one of the bleakest sights in the winter in northern Europe, and a common motif in German Romanticism.
From Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Mists’ to Carl Friedrich Lessing’s ‘Silesian Landscape’, figures with their back to the viewer.
More sinister and ‘Gothic’ landscapes from one of the leaders of the Düsseldorf School, and last of the German Romantics.
A younger successor to Caspar David Friedrich, and prominent member of the Düsseldorf School, he was both a Romantic and an influence on the Hudson River School.
Centred on Caspar David Friedrich, they were influenced by Claude-Joseph Vernet, Caspar Wolf, Philip James de Loutherbourg and Henry Fuseli.
Romantic views of castles in the mountains from Carl Friedrich Lessing, and more accurate accounts by Gustave Courbet and others.
Companions to valkyries, accompanying the Wild Hunt, at the Crucifixion and executions, or the first sign of Spring?
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