Easter Morning

Caspar David Friedrich is one of the leading exponents of German Romantic painting. Throughout his life, he sought communion with nature as a means of expressing his feelings and ideas, his hopes and yearnings. Friedrich’s landscapes are open to a profound religious interpretation. The one here, for instance, is imbued with a rich symbolism that successfully conveys his message to the viewer. Everything in it has meaning: the moon and the dawn are symbolic of death and the hope of eternal life; the season chosen—late winter giving way to early spring—is linked to the Resurrection. This beautiful painting formed a pair with the canvas entitled Early Snow, now in the Hamburg Kunsthalle.DD