Rocky Landscape in the Elbsandsteingebirge

The rocks forming the gate to Neurathen Castle in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, southeast of Dresden, soar into the sky. Before them our gaze traverses a ravine with trees clinging to its steep slopes—some that are lush green, others that are dead. A mighty uprooted tree cuts through the picture space in a diagonal. It forms a break in the image, separating the view of the chasm from the lofty heights of the rock gate. All of this is symbolic: trees, ravine, and rocky pinnacle represent the genesis and demise of all that is earthly, are visual metaphors of both the divine and of death. When this was painted in the early 1820s there were already hiking trails in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and a footbridge leading to the gate of Neurathen rock castle, but these have not been depicted by Friedrich. The rocks forming the gate to Neurathen Castle in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, southeast of Dresden, soar into the sky. Before them our gaze traverses a ravine with trees clinging to its steep slopes—some that are lush green, others that are dead. A mighty uprooted tree cuts through the picture space in a diagonal. It forms a break in the image, separating the view of the chasm from the lofty heights of the rock gate. All of this is symbolic: trees, ravine, and rocky pinnacle represent the genesis and demise of all that is earthly, are visual metaphors of both the divine and of death. When this was painted in the early 1820s there were already hiking trails in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and a footbridge leading to the gate of Neurathen rock castle, but these have not been depicted by Friedrich.

1822/1823

Oil on canvas

94.0 x 74.0cm

2589

Image © Belvedere, Vienna, 2024