''Cairn in Snow'', also known as ''Dolmen in the snow'', (german: Hünengrab im Schnee, literally "Giant's grave in the snow") is a landscape painting by the German painter

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

. Friedrich is noted for his landscapes depicting features such as trees or

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

ruins, silhouetted against the sky or in morning mists. The painting depicts leafless trees in the winter snow, with the tops of two of the trees broken off and the third bent by the prevailing wind, giving the work a haunted, spectral air. It is a

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

allegorical landscape, depicting a stone

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

set amid three oak trees on a hilltop, with a contemplative melancholy mood. It was probably painted around 1807, making it among Friedrich's first oil paintings. It measures and has been held by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden since 1905. The main elements of the painting are taken from different locations in eastern Germany. The cairn is thought to be based on the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

burial site at , near the town

Gützkow Gützkow () is a town in the District of Vorpommern-Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated some 15 km south of Greifswald, on the north bank of the River Peene. Gützkow was the central town of the medieval County o ...

West Pomerania Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania, Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania (german: Vorpommern), is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, Weste ...

; the

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

was destroyed before 1818, but Friedrich had sketched it since at least 1802. Friedrich sketched the trees at

Neubrandenburg Neubrandenburg (lit. ''New Brandenburg'', ) is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban centre of the Mecklenburg Lakeland. The city is famous for its ...

, most clearly an 1807 sepia sketch ''Hünengrab am Meer'' ("Dolmen by the sea"). Similar oak trees reappear in several works by Friedrich, including ''Monk in the Snow'' (1808, also known as ''Winter''), ''

The Abbey in the Oakwood ''The Abbey in the Oakwood'' (german: Abtei im Eichwald) is an oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1809 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown together with the painting ''The Monk by the Sea'' in the Prussian Academy o ...

'' (1818), ''Monastery graveyard under snow'' (1818) and ''Oak tree in snow'' (1829). The hill is located near Wustrow. The painting also includes four ravens, two above the cairn, one to the right, and a fourth high in the tree to the right. File:Caspar David Friedrich 046 (Monk in the Snow).jpg, Caspar David Friedrich: ''Monk in the Snow'', also known as ''Winter'', 1808 File:Caspar David Friedrich - Abtei im Eichwald - Google Art Project.jpg, Caspar David Friedrich: ''

'', 1809 File:Caspar David Friedrich 049.jpg, Caspar David Friedrich: ''Monastery graveyard under snow'', 1818 File:Friedrich, Caspar David - Eichbaum im Schnee.jpg, Caspar David Friedrich: ''Oak tree in snow'', 1829 The painting alludes to Christian and pagan symbolism. Trees and forests were seen as symbols of life endurance, longevity, and immortality. Sacred groves, often a group of trees in ancient times, were associated with secrecy and initiation rites, and they were regarded as untouchable. The main trees depicted in this painting by Friedrich appear to have had most of their old branches chopped off. The three trees around the cairn recalls the three wooden crosses on

Golgotha Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

at the

crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consid ...

, and the stone chamber where Christ's body was entombed. The painting also alludes to the permanence of the ancient stone landmark, the strength of the oak tree to withstand the storm broken and bowed but not defeated, and the continuity of life in the middle of winter. Art critics have interpreted the painting as a meditation on life and death, and on the political situation in Germany following the defeats of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

by Napoleon's French army at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806. Around the same times, Friedrich was working on his 1807 '' Tetschen Altar''. The painting was first owned by the Greifswald University professor Karl Schildener. It painting is described in 1828 in the ''Greifswald academical journal'' (II, 2, pp. 40–41).Chris Noir
"Caspar David Friedrich"
Time Does Not Rest, 29 April 2013. The work was sold at auction in Leipzig in 1845 and acquired by Friedrich's friend and fellow painter

Johan Christian Dahl Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by some ...

. Dahl imitated the work in his own painting, ''Megalithic Tomb in Winter''. It was sold from the estate of Dahl's only surviving son,

Johann Siegwald Dahl Johann Siegwald Dahl (16 August 1827, Dresden - 15 June 1902, Dresden) was a German animal painter. Life and work He was one of nine children born to the Norwegian painter, Johan Christian Dahl and his first wife Emilie. Of those, only he and one ...

, and acquired by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden in 1905. File:SigridHinz269.jpg, Caspar David Friedrich: ''Hünengrab bei Gützkow'', 1802 File:Hünengrab am Meer.jpg, Caspar David Friedrich: ''Hünengrab am Meer'', 1807 File:Johan Christian Dahl - Megalith Grave in Winter.JPG,

: ''Megalith Grave in Winter'', 1824–25

References

Caspar David Friedrich and the Age of German Romanticism
Linda Siegel, p. 81-82
Political Symbolism in Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of George L. Mosse
edited by George Lachmann Mosse, Seymour Drescher, David Warren Sabean, Allan Sharlin, p. 221
The Megaliths of Northern Europe
Magdalena Midgley, p.xiii
Kosegarten's Cultural Legacy: Aesthetics, Religion, Literature, Art, and Music
Lewis Holmes, p. 123-124

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cairn in Snow 1807 paintings Paintings by Caspar David Friedrich Paintings in the Galerie Neue Meister Snow in culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links