The Painter 250 oil paintings, Dolmen in the Snow (fig. 1), emphasising the temporal element. He replaced the scattered rocks with a megalithic tomb near Gützkow, which he had first drawn in 1801.11 A comparison of the two illustrates how he made the transition from sepia drawing to oil painting, with new aspects emerging in the process: the landscape, frozen under a blanket of snow, reaches up to the blue sky, which stretches over the bare oak trees, as a portent of the spring that follows winter. In October 1806, the change of seasons took on a political dimension, with Friedrich expressing hope for the Wars of Liberation: “The German spirit will work its way out of the storm and the clouds.”12 Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert noted that Friedrich’s studio was a meeting place for like-minded people, “where the raging of the external political storms could frequently be heard.”13 The Cross in the Mountains (fig. 50, p. 62), the other major sepia drawing of this period, also alludes to political concerns through its religious theme, which, in keeping with its Christian iconography, revolves around salvation – the salvation of the people from the horrors of war. This becomes even more evident in the version subsequently executed in oil, which is much more elaborate in character and can therefore be understood as a programmatic painting. There are vital motific similarities between Dolmen in the Snow and The Cross in the Mountains (often known in German as the Tetschen Altarpiece) (fig.1, p. 239): the oaks have been replaced by slender spruces and the megalithic tomb by a cross. Both represent a thematic link between Christian faith and political conviction. Friedrich originally wrote to Theresia von Brühl, who wished to buy the painting from the artist in 1808, that it was not for sale as it was intended for ‘his king’.14 He was referring to Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, who had successfully driven Napoleon’s troops out of Pomerania in 1805, before being defeated by the French aggressor in 1806. Against this background, The Cross in the Mountains (Tetschen Altarpiece) proves to be a “political painting with an anti- Napoleonic bias”.15 PATRIOTIC PICTURES With the escalation of the situation in 1813, the retreat of Napoleon’s army from Russia and the opposing alliance of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden, Friedrich chose more explicit subjects for his patriotic sentiments. When the painting Tombs of Fallen Freedom Fighters (fig. 2) was exhibited at the Berlin Academy Exhibition in 1812 it must still have been considered rather ambiguous. A critic of the exhibition complained: “The artist’s idea reaches the soul of the beholder both confusedly and clearly.”16 The paradox of this painting arose from the inscriptions on the tombs depicted, which were dedicated to the “Saviour of the Fatherland” or he who had “Fallen for Freedom and Justice”.17 But it was unclear whether these inscriptions were intended to honour those who by 1812 had already fallen, or whether they were an imagined future tribute to those for whom the painting was intended as a call to arms. Andreas Aubert, who first studied Friedrich’s “patriotic pictures” in 1911, suggested that the “hieroglyphic” ambiguity of these works was due to a “fear of censorship”.18 2 Caspar David Friedrich Tombs of Fallen Freedom Fighters (Tombs of the Ancient Heroes) | 1812 Oil on canvas, 49.3 × 69.8 cm Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv. HK-1048 (BS/J 205)
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