381 2 | Detail Klara von Lindern HANS JOACHIM NEIDHARDT REBUILDS THE CANON, RENEWING INTEREST IN DRESDEN ROMANTICISM Between 1972 and 1975, three major retrospectives were held in London, Hamburg and Dresden to mark the bicentenary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth, loosely coinciding with the anniversary year of 1974.1 A closer look at the titles and concepts of the London and Dresden exhibitions reveals a thematic similarity: Caspar David Friedrich 1774–1840: Romantic Landscape Painting in Dresden and Caspar David Friedrich und sein Kreis. In addition to a largely chronological overview of the artist’s entire oeuvre, both exhibitions featured a selection of works by many of Friedrich’s fellow artists who were active at some point in Dresden. At the Tate Gallery, this included some thirteen paintings and drawings, while at the Albertinum in Dresden this part of the exhibition grew to a total of 35 works on canvas and paper.2 As far as is known, no photographs have survived of the corresponding section of the London retrospective, but there are several photographs of the exhibition at the Albertinum in 1974–1975 which give a good overview of the works by Friedrich’s Dresden-based circle of fellow artists exhibited in the Mosaiksaal3 (fig. 1). These were major anniversary exhibitions with the aim of critically reassessing Friedrich’s work and making it accessible to the public of the 1970s, while at the same time establishing Dresden as an important centre of Romantic landscape painting. By contrast, the present exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of Friedrich’s birth has been greatly expanded to include a look at the influence of the Old Masters and numerous loans from German collections and abroad. It is no coincidence that the London and Dresden retrospectives of the 1970s were thematically and conceptually related.4 The chief curator of the Dresden exhibition, Hans Joachim Neidhardt, was also part of the London curatorial team and is represented in the catalogues of both exhibitions with essays: first in 1972 on the relationship between Ernst Ferdinand Oehme and Caspar David Friedrich5 and then in an extended form on “Caspar David Friedrich’s Influence on the Artists of His Time”.6 In addition to (co-)curating these groundbreaking retrospectives – which were to have a decisive impact on the history of Friedrich’s reception – Hans Joachim Neidhardt can also be thanked for helping to put ‘Dresden Romanticism’ firmly on the map in scholarship on German art and cultural history. In his autobiography, published in 2020, Neidhardt considers
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