The Abbey in the Oak Wood by Caspar David Friedrich

The Abbey in the Oak Wood is a Romantic piece done by Friedrich in 1809. Friedrich is one of my favorite artists of the Romantic era because of how he portrays nature's landscapes and the human interaction in them. His works capture the sublimity of nature--it's overarching power and relentlessness in the world compared to humans. The Romantic style wrapped itself around this idea of man being insignificant to nature, and that is what the works of the time depicted. While you could look at something like Gericault's Raft of the Medusa, which is sometimes considered the quintessential Romantic artwork, I truly adore the works of Friedrich because of how he portrays some of these darker landscapes such as The Abbey in the Oak Wood. From the murky graveyard and the proceeding monks at the bottom of the canvas, to the gnarled and exaggerated branches of the dead trees at the top, the work reeks of a Romantic artwork of the 19th Century.