Caspar David Friedrich - Death and Contemplation

let's see if we're actually live now good morning everyone if you're here with me I'm just checking that it's actually working okay I'm checking as well okay this is a a very preliminary tting so it's not on yet on my end oh there people here oh yeah oh okay so okay I guess I'll follow a little bit yeah I think we're live yes okay are we live we we are live are we alive are the dead artists alive well not that I'm an artist or I I don't know are you an artist yonathan uh not not not yet um maybe maybe someday um okay welcome um dear viewers if you are here with us uh on this beautiful Saturday uh I'm delighted to have uh my dear friend Luke Travis here uh Luke is a I think the best art appreciation teacher uh that exists in the world so it's it's a a it's a big honor and a privilege to to have you here join us for the first live uh dead artist Society uh session so welcome Luke oh and it's an honor and a privilege to be here to uh celebrate dead artists amazing so I see we already have people in the chat fantastic welcome everybody um so just a bit of a an overview what dead artist society mean this yeah what is it yonathan what are the dead artists so the dead artists are those amazing artists that used to roam this Earth and bless us with their magnificent works of art and now they're gone and some of them have virtually been forgotten uh especially the one that we're going to discuss uh today he was forgotten until late 20th century by the way virtually forgotten um so uh without further Ado we're here uh today we're going to celebrate a few works we'll start with one and if we do well we'll have another bonus one a work by Kasper D Ric the giant German romantic painter are you ready look uh I want to ask first yes Casper David Friedrich um what's why did you pick him so I picked Mr David T because he has been an obsession of mine since um High School uh I remember when we first learned about the Romantic I was like in art history class and we were we learning about Romanticism and I remember seeing the picture of the Wonder above the Sea of fog as the first example of Romanticism that I learned about and ever since then that that photo has somewhere Been Around My Life um I was always fascinated by that and as I start did you write about that painting did you on your blog yeah many many different times and um too many probably uh but it's never enough um I had the privilege of actually seeing this painting three times last year in person um or was it this year was last year and um it's it's the greatest um so but but of course we're we're not going to talk about that painting today fedick was an amazing Universal uh and quite philosophical painter which is why I am particularly fascinated with him these days because he's very metaphysical about his painting okay it's very philosophical very okay um sometimes is also ethical sometimes is political but what I like the most about him is his metaphor physical uh subjects which means these are big words it means that he is talking about what is this world is it a good world is it a bad world what what is man's role in this world and he uses Landscapes to to discuss that and and in the painting I will show you here Luke it will be a good example of that that's interesting um for the first uh live in person dead artist Society talk you gave you did an artist that does everyday life normal scenes that I would not think of as metaphysical Yan verier you know milkmaids and servants and closed quarters within homes and and with Casper David frieder it's huge Vistas and dramatic scenes so very different are we seeing a different side of you with this yes yeah you seeing you seeing the the the more I think the the more uh relevant side of me verm is a new thing for me it was a new thing for me if I was asked I was specifically asked to do verir by our dear friend Mark who actually initiated this whole thing Mark deuna um and he asked me to do shout out to Mark yes absolutely and he asked me to do V me if I were if you would ask me uh Luke which painter would you like to present as the first edition for it would have been C which is why we're doing this today I see excellent excellent um by the way so I don't know what artwork you've picked out uh which I'm excited to see it maybe I've had I've seen it before maybe I've not but I'm excited to read the artwork with you and then to ask questions about it and then to see how it might relate to uh Casper David Fred's life and his metaphysical ideas um you know say maybe maybe um um look I would ask you uh about your own relationship with Casper David 3 um I initially wasn't a huge into Casper David fedish I didn't really see much but a few years back I started getting into Landscapes a little bit more and then I started seeing that there was much more to just a standard landscape this was not a Bob Ross painting where they're happy little trees and got a nice Vista I like you I started seeing him as saying something about human beings relationship not just to nature but to to the world to to existence um and yeah I did I've done a little bit of research I've taught a little bit about him I've seen uh several works of his but not as many as you have so uh about this dialogue and I I think this um if I if I may comment on the general I think we both are interested in it because we both come from a similar philosophic uh background we're both uh considering ourselves at least students of iron Ran's philosophy of objectivism and and there therefore we are interested in this kind of big you know philosophical big picture yeah how art can really show you a kind of vision of of of big ideas and your relationship to the world and uh what it means to be a human being and and that is that is very very different than verir for example which uh do you mean yonaton we're not going to talk about the individual brush strokes and the uh I don't know the composition and we'll talk about the composition but yeah the composition definitely but uh the scale I mean the theme the subjects is going to be very different okay without further Ado I see we have a bunch of people watching us live which is great so um we would also like to encourage uh audience participation in the chat I'll be very intrigued to hear uh what do you guys think as well so let us just share the screen and all right let's see whoa yeah this is winter gnarly trees that's my initial title winter gnarly trees so I'm seeing I'm seeing like two trees uh one going One Direction and the other tree going in the other direction uh and there a lot of stumps that are cut down oh and there's a person back there who's stooped over in the middle of this desolate winter and it is such a desolate winter I I can't tell if it's nighttime or not because the snow and the trees are so bright but the sky is so dark it's freezing here absolutely freezing a poor guy why is he out here it looks like he's got he's hunched over with some kind of stick is he crippled he doesn't look like he's got enough clothes on and and and is is there anything else around is he near town and why are those trees cut down he's just standing there is he taking it in boy that tree is kind of scary the roots of that tree are almost like branches as they yeah it's almost if you flip this painting over it you could have the ground the Dark of the sky be the ground and the light of the snow be the sky and those would be the roots would be kind of branches reaching out into it oh okay I have no idea why you picked this one but right now I'm I'm starting to think about moments in my life where I have been really kind of uncomfortable around nature i' I'd be curious also oh I can't hear you anaton I can't hear you uh and I'd be curious yeah I can hear you now I'd be curious in the if anybody uh who's viewing in the chat wants to put down their immediate Impressions or what they're seeing or perhaps you should get some first uh titles yes uh first titles yeah uh friends in the chat why don't you come up with your own title uh you know doesn't need to be anything too extravagant but what is your title for this painting and by the way I have you seen this work in in Real Life Look I haven't seen in real life and I if I've seen it at all it's been briefly uh yeah I don't remember it I've seen it I've seen it in real life and and it's a it's a special treat I think it has grown to be one of my absolute favorites uh and I think you can already tell why um I know I'm not quite sure why okay but I'm starting to try to piece things together uh I'm I was thinking these trees were dead at first but I'm seeing there's some uh leaves growing on the back on the left yeah yeah but that tree also are those Dead Leaves and it's just a residue of what had been the fall and now everything is dying or is is something to zoom we can we can have a bit of Zo look that look at that they do look red and dark um and you see the this the same red on the on the head of the the person is there is there a link I do see a hint of the red it's almost like a hat or I mean to my eyes almost like a bandage uh but there some flowers too in the midst of the snow yeah we have some flowers here but the way these trees have been cut also if you look at it it's so violent if you look at these ones for example those are violent the others look kind of neat yeah the others look like they're clean cuts uh and then these others are violent but I don't see any trunks around so if they're if their trunks were around and they were just cut off they've been dragged away and now you're just left with nothing but but these trees that we're seeing these gnarly trees they survived whatever cutting had happened oh and that that stump in the uh in right beside the first gnarly tree that looks like it's been violently torn away is a storm that's done us are these survivors in this winter storm you can think of that yeah and and there's also I like to think about because it there's another it's another instance of a back figure figure which is um a very famous characteristic of a Casp trtic landscape where you see the person from the behind you see his back you don't see his expression and that gives you a lot of room for speculation it gives us a lot of room for to have a discussion about this because what if his his face is terrified uh right you think about uh is very similar to Edward Mo's the screen for example he like that maybe maybe seeing something there maybe he's there's like a wolfes look like he's kind of staring off doesn't he not like he's standing but something in the distance that he's catching his attention but I can't see what he could be looking at in the distance maybe this tree is is blocking maybe there's something there maybe this massive tree is blocking our view of perhaps a danger or perhaps a cabin in the woods um could be all sorts of different things uh it doesn't look like there'd be any cabins around yeah I don't see any roads I don't see I just see the on the horizon kind of some sloping uh heels yes over there yeah and maybe the hazze of of of snow being Windswept you know kind of like maybe the there's a there's a hint of of white like on the on the horizon just above that that's almost like wind is blowing snow off of those Hills cause it to to kind of create a little bit of that wispiness mhm what what what about some sounds look what what are we what are we hearing in this in this scene trying to make some whooing sounds yeah so there The whooing Sounds maybe some creaking as some of the Winds because those are there's some really spindly branches going on here and and when you hear when you hear these winds look you feel the cold right you feel the I'm wondering I'm looking at that that guy whoever that person is and it looks like the the elbows are pinched in and the feet are together and and almost as if I mean they they are not wearing enough for for the cold I definitely feel the cold here this might be one of the coldest feeling paintings and also the the the almost black color of the sky which is is incredibly dramatic the cont between the black and the white snow and this is a question I have for you for yeah for seeing it in person sometimes photographs kind of they they adjust they pick up kind of the the terrain of the painting and cast different lights so it's is it a blacker in person it's blacker yes it's really black that's what I was wondering that's that's it's almost like a void which is very interesting I think very unusual very very heightened and this is a feature of a romantic painting right it is a a dramatization it it's it's not just it's not Casper you know was standing there just painting he made it up this whole scene is made up he painted in a studio and he wanted this every everything about this composition is so meticulously placed if you we have three parts here we have the the the the small uh part between the two trees with the person in the middle and we have the the two the left and the right side with these two trees and the way they are branching out is is also very dramatic they going you know um one's going there and one he's going there they're going in completely different directions and they're bending in tree the way trees are not necessarily supposed to bend uh one of them is at a 45° angle the other one it's branch is almost longer than the trunk of the tree itself it's it feels like it's going to topple over these are these are old men who are about to to to to Tumble over in the midst of this wind in the middle of this Dark Void mm yeah we have some initial titles in the chat uh let's read them out uh Raj hello Raj Raj says the big tree and the men are both oh that wasn't the Titus sorry uh but Raj commented the big tree and the men are both bent interesting comment yes you can see that's true yeah it's yeah there's something about the curvature uh which I think also adds to the uncomfortable feeling that you're getting right he's not he's not in a comfortable posture this man and and that's what Daphne is saying in the chat that's if you try the pose out yourself yeah and bend down like that it's not going to feel good yeah let's see Mike also is saying can't get past his stoop yeah you know when I was looking at this I wasn't focused on this stud which which is interesting when you have uh you look at which is a big virtue of your art tours you have so many varying opinions when you have a big group of people looking at the same picture I was not focused on on on the way he being uncomfortable I was focused on the background I was focused on what's there what's what's lurking in the in the in the in these Shadows um so it's interesting to hear uh what else do we have from the chat Alec calls it surviving desolation uh I think it's fairly apt don't you think luk yeah desolation is a good word uh because there's a suggestion that there was once a a green forest I can imagine this scene in the summer maybe a few years back when there were more trees and now now the Desolation has set in uh this is post-apocalyptic quite yeah it could be Poston what are you doing to us what are you doing to our soul what are you revealing about your soul yeah the fact that I like it yeah what does that mean about me um who else let's see uh Jean looks like a g g gate through of live with standing harsh weather and rough snowy Wasteland absolutely um what else do we have um the trees spread apart as as if taunting the viewer to try and find out what the man is seeing I noticed that after you point it out he he might be staring at like curtains spreading out yeah that's a good comment thank you Tes who else Mike says you read that it makes him feel no Mike said it makes me think of Marcus aelia's comment about how how your problems seem small when considering the immensity of the universe but here the the man is still stooped I I think it's it's a very good comment Mike um and and it's a theme uh in a lot of Fred's paintings about making man seems small in comparison to the world to the universe and there there are exceptions the Wonder above the Sea of fog and this is very different than wander above the Sea of fog yeah that one feels like Master of the world this one I'm caught in the middle of the desolate Gloom All Around Me stooped Against the cold and looking around at whatever is around and not moving anywhere he looks lost but he can't be lost because there's well there's he's not in the middle of a forest but it looks like there's nothing there's just desolate planes all around him mhm and black Stark black doesn't it give you the feeling like uh as if this is like a studio and this is just a set and and pric just placed that guy in the middle to show us uh to tell us something this is how I how I look at it like there's nothing organic about this scene at all yet it kind of does feel organic does that make sense what I'm saying l i I think it's there's an artificiality that I think you you're helping me to see for the scene it feels like uh those silent movies from the 1920s when they wanted to create a dramatic setting and it's Stark and black and white and and it it's pieced together this feels like it's pieced together to create this Stark scene so yonatan MH who is this person in there is it is it a [ __ ] I've seen paintings of his where he has where he has cripples in them in the middle of the Stark SC but you don't think it is well if you look if you think about The Wanderer he also has a stick he has a walking stick the wonderer yeah and so you could think maybe this is the wander on a bad day on on on much worse weather um because they they have the same stick although they hair is different but maybe he's wearing a cap I'm not I'm not actually sure um yeah there is I think a commentary here that could be as follows life is hard there is death there is cold it's tough but something can still grow out there's still something that grows so you're seeing hope you're seeing some hope yeah you can see that I think because he hasn't been eaten right and you don't see you see there nothing can live out there to to want to eat it's all dead well what about polar bears that you don't see you don't see any polar bears coming after this guy right you don't see any imminent danger we think he's being very cold but it's the aftermath of a blizzard this is not the blizzard this is the aftermath the clarity and the Blackness I think interesting point tells us this is an aftermath of a blizzard that's that's yeah yeah yeah yeah I I like that point I like that point a lot you the residual snow on the tree branches the fact that you get a little bit of wind suggestion in his uh in his outfit but mhm not too much in the branches of the trees I don't really see much wind there or in the grass that the plot of like uh little shrubs or grassy stuff coming out right below the base of that trunk that's uh right beside the guy it's not moving and the only wind might be in in the distance where I I wish this is where I wish I could see the the painting in person because I'd really want to see that the Horizon wisp of uh of snow there so yeah this he's come he's standing up he's come maybe standing up yeah may maybe he is figuring out the way maybe he's maybe you don't see like on the left left side on this side maybe he has a cabin there and he no he can't have he doesn't have a c there's no cabin there what are you talking about there is no cabin there all right maybe there is so I want I want to try to give a one centent summary of what I'm seeing okay and let me know how it sounds to you okay so my One sentent summary is in the middle of a a dark BL leak post-apocalyptic winter a man gazes upon the void around him mhm that's it that's it and you know what if I put myself in his position we're seeing the trees and as uh someone mentioned earlier they're kind of opening up for us to see but the he's he has no trees in front of him his view is of just the the light of the snow and the black of the sky yeah yeah that's interesting that's his you that's what he does look at the trees that's right yeah and we are focused on the trees for him the trees are irrelevant yeah yeah I like that but it sounds like for you there is hope I think for me the whatever those orange uh leaves are whatever those flowers are are a reminder of what had been rather than an indication of what is yeah so you're saying there's more death than life here therefore therefore it's it's a pessimistic view of uh of men I like that let's let's have a look at the chat for a minute um let's see what we have do you want to help me read out these you you better yeah okay so I'm seeing a couple things about the clothing tun is asking um sold or saying solders uniform that's a good that's a if I may inject that's that could be a point because Fredick has as in many of his paintings painted soldiers and it there was a time where he was particularly nationalistic in his paintings and I could have brought that there's an excellent example of a of a portrait of um a shur what's the name like a a soldier that rides on the horses what's the name sh uh Cavalier uh yeah whatever there's there's a a painting with so it could about you it is a possible explanation T that's a good point yeah okay and then yeah Mike is asking also about the clothes um and Jin trxx is saying I viewed it more as the silence before the storm as a blizzard would leave more snow on the tree oh that's that's a pretty interesting point you're I'm having a flashback to a a the scene of a light a photograph of a lighthouse in Michigan after a snowstorm and just looks like an icicle so maybe that's true maybe there's an oncoming storm that he might be staring at in the distance and that perhaps yeah if there had been a storm there there would not be such spindly branches or or floral remains on the tree okay and Daphne's explanation there is hope for nature but none for man very good that's that's kind of combining your your initial optimism um and my GL pessimism that's a good point da uh I was at the exhibition the Casp exhibition in Hamburg and there was a whole theme in the text that they were writing as explanations as how much it aligns with environmentalism and how much friederich was actually an environmentalist which is nonsense uh because there was no such thing back then but um there was actual pessimism about our and perhaps skepticism about our ability to master nature remember this is early 19th century this is before we reached the North Pole for example there was actual skepticism is it even possible can men actually uh you know Master nature and now the evidence we're having we know it for a fact to be true but then early Industrial Revolution not sure not so sure so I so frich perhaps was embracing a pessimistic view of that but if he were he was living today maybe he would have a different view we don't know that um so yeah getting more into friederick so yonaton I was looking back at some notes i' had taken on on Fredick and because I spent some time trying to understand how does he put himself in his paintings and it's a question I like to ask about these dead artists when I look at a painting of theirs or an artwork of theirs I asked them so how do you personally connect o dead artist to the painting you just made uh and I found this quote that describes a little bit it's um from a a book I picked up the spirit of German Romanticism Casper DAV Friedrich and it's uh partially what he has to say and apparently Casper wrote a lot of letters so we get a lot of his letters and information uh from those so we can get direct quotes and then it tells a little bit about what he would do and apparently he's a pretty Odd Fellow so here's here's a description of his experience going out into nature and what he would do and how he'd feel about it and seeing this painting is making me think that he could easily put himself in this person's place okay and this is quoting Caspar here everything is silence silence silence around me this silence does me me good it is true but I wouldn't like to always have it around me to such a high degree so he enjoys going out in nature and having the silence around him maybe like this guy doesn't seem to be scared of it but I don't want it to have it around me to such a high degree yeah enjoy his Studio yeah yeah so he uh in one story he tells about how he went out for seven days One Week by himself in nature without interacting with any other human being just by himself and he this is what he had to say about it I really cannot recommend this method to anyone else the method of just going out by yourself and experiencing the silence silence Silence of nature I really cannot recommend this method to anyone else it is almost too much for me Gloom invades my soul oh wow Gloom invades my soul Gloom invades he says the soul Gloom invades the soul mhm he wants it he wants to go out yeah be away from people and experience the Gloom it's almost too much for him and he definitely too much for other people so yonatan is this too much for you for me yeah absolutely it's way too much but but yeah you could imagine if if based on that you could imagine Fredick being this guy and maybe he has taken his hike a bit too far and maybe that's the end of it all that's what we're seeing here perhaps okay okay so why did you pick this one why did I pick this painting yes because as we've seen in our discussion it has so much room for having a an interesting philosophical discussion of the painting with room for differing opinions we I I could take the optimistic View and you can take the pessimistic View and we can have a we have both we can rely on some things here to have a debate about it I think that you know what it sounds like for Caspar he took both he took both I want to go out into the Gloom this nurtures me this feeds my soul but it also is overwhelming exactly I need the Gloom I need the darkness I feel like a Sith Lord I need the darkness but I I if it's I Barett up to a certain extent and it makes sense if you read about his biography his life was riddled with uh grief um there are lots of his brothers who died and very early and he experienced that firsthand that's right and and I think that that has a lot to do with it but we don't want to psychologize too much as uh we're not experts on that but uh but yeah that that could be a clue um to why he selected these themes but but yeah I think I I selected this because it's interesting and I like the that the paintings has an ambivalence and and that's I think the greatest quality uh and notice the amb this is actual ambivalence compared to if we take like a postmodernist or painting where it's just nonsense um and you could have like a discussion like a conceptual painting and one has this opinion and that and they both go into uh you know banter that doesn't actually have to do with what we're seeing here everything actually is put forth by Fredick that's the how much of a master he was he was able to convey such complex ideas or in a painting it's it's super difficult it's much easier to write an essay or to to um to perhaps even to write book is easier because he he he doesn't have a a thousand Pages he has just one frame and with one frame he has managed to capture all of these things and that's enough for me and you to sit here for 30 minutes and and for our viewers uh to also enjoy a conversation about this that that is I think a a true quality of a true Giant and there are very few painters who have achieved that what do you say to a second painting oh you think we're done with this one mhm what about the the audience any final remarks for this one um let's see anything Raj and then I think with with a second painting we can also shed more light on this one and see a little bit of Caspar's the dead artist Soul kind of spirit its way through a thread of different artworks that's that's a good point and and I would like to add I was at that exhibition that had all the famous FID paintings oh I'm so jealous I'm so jeal you could yes but maybe it'll come to I it will be in New York right yeah it's going to be in New York and you will be there spring I will be there with my w with my Gloom filling my soul and my and my cane and my 19 century red Bonnet whatever that we should do a costume yeah we should do a costume oh yeah absolutely the one thing you will you will get this when you're there the you see a similar atmosphere in all the paintings and you hear a similar sound a sign of Silence you hear that in all the paintings almost all of them you and that's very interesting once you have the whole the entire context you see how consistent he was in these in these themes and ideas this is really who he was okay let's do a next the next painting I'm stopping my screen share all right and I'm going to share my screen okay okay and I'm sure you've seen this one before okay but I'm still curious what would be your initial title your first title for this painting oh okay initial title also the chat give us your initial titles um let's see is this the New York version no h I would say I would say it has something to do with the aftermath of losing your wife whoa the aftermath of losing your wife yes you went from like optimistic for that gloomy painting and now you're going really pessimistic here yes okay yes I'm saying I I propose this uh look and I haven't done much a lot of thinking about this pic so it's good that yeah yeah go for it describe what you see going on and what I haven't wrote about this yeah so I think this guy is wearing all black he's a widow uh the woman next to him is the sister of his wife and she's comfort conforting him uh because he he just lost her and um he's looking at the distance hope in the search for some hope so I think that's that's what we're seeing here and the the the the Dead the tree with the Dead Leaves on the right side but and and which is symbolizes death and the tree with the leaves on the left side on the side of that woman perhaps suggest that maybe they will become a couple and maybe there is hope uh for them to to have you know a second uh uh oh you're getting positive yeah so perhaps so it is it is a grief but there is hope because there is some life there no I I've I've read places where kaspar viewed his trees as characters almost and and that that tree the with the Dead Leaves I think yeah makes me think of the trees from the previous painting filled with Dead Leaves and kind of slanted almost at a 45 degree angle and looking gnarly and and maybe symbolizing rep some death and then you're right there is that tree it's on the on the other side of the side of the woman that's like maybe a weeping willow but filled with leaves full and what are they doing what are they doing they're thinking about the future the why the future because they've just been to a funeral and this is the edge of a cemetery and they're they're walking to this small little Hill and they're looking at the woods and they're thinking what will the future hold um he is like very sad and he's yeah you'll be fine you'll be it's just it's just just death you know happens um so but yeah yeah I can see her she's got her hand on him suest maybe she yeah and so you you you said edge of a cemetery yeah what did you that's making you say that suggesting that to you uh I'm imagining that but the the fact that he's he's wearing all black is like is like a dress for a funeral so so maybe yeah she's not wearing all black yeah yeah she's not but she she's got half black she got yeah she's not a full like she's not first uh maybe she's not the first Blood relative you know so she's less less sad so she's able to confir the what is the most hopeful detail in this painting and maybe this is a good contrast to the other one the sun of the Moon that's the moon I think yeah that that that Moon that really really really bright moon and you can kind of see the sliver of it mhm yeah the Crescent of it that's the Moon Yeah there and maybe there's a bright star over here like Venus or something yeah but they're staring over at the Moon ah it's quite dramtic it is quite romantic okay what more do you see going on there is this you see this trunk the the that's also been like violently cut you see on the on the left uh just below the couple yeah you see that yeah I think that that is the death the the the woman he lost I think that's that represents her and she's behind him now and he's moving forward with with his potential new companion yeah okay so if in the other painting the guy is staring out into the void and saying something like I imagine a quote Oh Darkness you are over overwhelming me Darkness you're overwhelming me it's too much maybe saying something like that what could they be saying to each other right here she she is like you'll get over it you'll get over it you'll get over it yeah with maybe you'll get over it I know yeah yeah and yeah you see the Moon the Moon shines he doesn't care the moon uh so so there still there things can change you know so you know the moon gets get completely dark and it gets very bright it gets full and it gets that's life yeah can we can I get poetical and then I want to get art historical please yes okay so poetical uh I've got a poem that kaspar wrote about the moon and apparently he wrote a lot of poems about the moon uh and I want I only found one but if if there's some scholar out there who knows uh where these Caspar fedish Moon poems are I I would love to see them but apparently he loved the moon and like your suggestion he did see it as a sign of Hope and as symbolizing like Resurrection because the moon you know dies and then comes back to life for its cycle but here's here's a poem he wrote about encountering the moon in the forest being frightened and then having hope so here's what he says oh and then owl's got a bad rap in this poem it's a short poem 10 lines long okay Moon your silver your silver your silver shines hail and Grave ears through dark clouds owls your Hoots horribly ReSound throughout the fur forest alone I stand here and Afraid Terror seizes me more and more I mean this is sounding like the the previous painting maybe will no more joy appear from afar yes I see through the tree trunks a faint hope a dim Shimmer alas it is the remains of a long forgotten Splender so he's there in the forest the hooting owls are hooting horribly and he's feeling afraid and then suddenly he sees through the tree trunks the Shimmer of the Moon and there is hope yeah it's beautiful yeah put you right there yeah the owls by the way he painted a few owls there are paintings of him with owls and yeah apparently he hated owls that's that's what I that's what I heard too that his owls were like death what he in Athena would not get along um okay what is there anything more in the chat here you want to touch on let's uh let's yeah we have we have quite a few comments oh torren says the Moon is so bright at first I thought it was a sun yeah mistaken um Mike has if the right tree is death and these those low tendrils coming at them is especially creepy yeah those that's some really creepy tendrils going on there yeah and Amar time says something ends something begins one tree is dead the other living you can't tell if it's twilight with a moon or Dawn with a sun because it looks strange yeah there's that a bit of ambiguity even though which is which is common in fredi yeah I like that yeah it's so bright that's that moon is so bright it makes you think makes you think of the sun like for tun as well um thinking of the Sun and then Daphne saying their body language makes me see that they are not romantic to each other but friends such good ones huh and tun has a quote even if we are standing in the shadow of the Moon we still have each other yeah that's that's and uh and Mike is asking is there something about them standing on a hill or incline I I would like to think so every well everything is per for in a fredi painting I think that's fairly obvious um I think that's the hope I think that they and you see that the the the death is below so they are going walking above no no no no it's not you know it's below what's the fur tree Forest the fur tree yeah the forest from over the hill yeah yeah yeah that's right yeah so they they've got the forest below and the moon above and that's their view so that's something interesting with the when you talked about the ruken figure how we see the figures from the back it sometimes we're not quite clear in exactly what it is that they're seeing fully right here we're we're kind of we're coming up The Path a little bit and we don't see exactly the open view that they have right we got to walk up The Path a little bit more to see that yeah and to to know that what they're actually taking in is a different pain than the one that we're taking in yeah it's completely different there's much more hope in their painting than in our landscape view mhm yeah yeah it's beautiful um I saw Raj commented before but he deleted so uh there are different versions of this painting so I think there is a version where it's two men but I think this is the version with a woman um if if I'm not mistaken look you can correct me but I know there are different versions of this that's why at the beginning I asked like three versions there's one where somebody's alone maybe and then two men yeah this was a fre really liked this composition so he made a few different versions but I'm pretty sure it's a woman I'm pretty sure yeah yeah yeah and Raj's comment um touched on something it's uh he said that the woman is identified as Carolin bomber his wife and the the art historical tidbit I want to bring up is that uh another of your favorite landscape painters and a friend of Casper D Fedrick um Yohan Christian doll yeah um a year after Caspar's death Yohan you know takes a look at this and just assigns it this is this is essentially a portrait of Caspar and Carolyn yeah um so it it fits their marriage this I think this was like in the early 1820s and they got married in 1818 and there several of his paintings that become a little bit more hopeful after his marriage right that's when when that's when he painted the Wonder above the Sea of fol that's exactly when he was married yeah so now they are historical but in looking at his life and asking kaspar so kaspar you know I know you went through periods of depression and also you you had gloomy moments and you like let the Gloom come into you and have the silence all around I'm curious I want to know when did he when did you paint the other painting which the the other versions the previous one yeah yeah what by the way what was the title is there a title for that one uh I know the I like that the two men contemplating the moon I know that's the so it's men and women contemplating the Boon that's yeah and and the other one because I'm curious about the date for the other one whether is let's see before his marriage where got a little so this this is the later version uh with the men and women contemplating the moon that's the Berlin version what we no no no but what about the painting we just saw the this oh the previous one that's an earlier one that's a much earlier one it's winter landscape have the dates a second the earlier one is from 1811 so it's 1811 much earlier okay yeah seven years before he gets married yeah so he's he's still in the mode of Let Me Go off into Nature by myself uh for seven days without encountering another human uh so looking at this if this is indeed is a painting of he of him and Caroline is like I'm going to go off in nature again but I'm going to have a companion with me to experience like the hope and joy of nature yeah that's much nicer and it's much more hospitable this time as well the nature now I I'm brought back to the comment Daphne made it doesn't look romantic looks more like good friends um as far from what I remember there was a wide age gap between the two of them like he was 44 and she was 25 when they got married and he had a hard time like adjusting to having somebody else in the house like he wrote about this in his letters like ah there's another human being here and I've got and all my decision now I've got to take into consideration this other human being and so the fact that now he's here with with allowing somebody else to join him in his escapades out in nature is feel for the artist soul and maybe this is like uh a recommendation for going out and finding a life partner yes because it made it made Caspar go from like a a guy staring into the blank void of the dark winter to somebody who's sharing the moonrise yeah absolutely and you can also cont contrast it with the wanderer uh which is from a very similar time where it's also a bit more Optimist much more optimistic yeah than than the the winter landscape yes I I I would have loved to see a comparison we should have had a had a comparison slide but well maybe maybe that be something it's it's very important to make comparisons when learning you you flash back to the previous painting real quick I'll stop my share yeah let's do a bit of a flashback and then we can maybe if you want to wrap up there so we are back cold Gloom and you know what's making what's accentuated here is that this guy is really isolated like he's between those tree branches there's not much space for anybody else there is no space for anybody else just him yeah stooped over it was very yeah the Solitude is a it reminds me of another Fredick painting actually um maybe maybe I'll show it very briefly you know what look this is an interesting one okay all right now good good good let's see let's see the soul come throughout now we are uh let's do this you seeing this one look yeah yeah yeah yeah wait sorry what happened so very briefly oh there we go yep now yeah sorry I'm seeing it on the on the YouTube yeah no I don't see you though okay yeah so this one you see this guy look yeah I think I know what the problem is yeah so this guy is also alone right why don't I have it oh I think I messed up anyway let's do it for next time then I'm sorry I messed up this this this the live oh I saw it briefly and it showed up on the on the YouTube yeah I I couldn't show you this one I saw it but a full tree alone but yeah a full tree a massive very beautiful tree oh I think I know what the problem is I think I know wait wait wait I can fix it I I did a wrong wrong wrong SH now you can see it now you can see it sorry apologies to my viewers um now you see this guy yeah oh no I didn't see that guy there's a guy there yes oh he's sending his sheep he's like relaxing against that big trunk yeah that's another one of my favorites yeah that's a that's that's a treat to to stand that's quite the tree quite the tree yeah not like those other trees that PO guys staring out into the bleakness okay so that's a optimistic painting I think because it's about the virtue of being alone yeah um but you know the city is over there you see the city it's right here so it's not in danger he's just having a good time in the woods okay but this is this could be for next time well let me ask this yeah if if Caspar were to speak to us from the dead and he does kind of through his paintings but imagine that he's like you know he's now a ghost form and he's got his voice and now he's like right beside you right in front of you and starts to speak in ghostly terms yonatan what is he telling you what is his soul telling you what does CRA tells me I think maybe he would say no every time we're explaining his art uh it's it's actually the opposite it's actually probably that's what will happen Luke we we we can't really go into the psychology of a 19th century he was born in the 18th century man um what fun is that though can we go into to his psychology I want I want to I want to I want him to come up and say from what I understand of him mhm if he comes up and he says something like yonatan I am here to speak to you think of the power I'm not gonna try German ACC that's that's uh whatever okay forget it I'm but I'm I'm here to speak to you of the power of nature to overwhelm you yeah to overwhelm you to frighten you to terrify you and to invigorate you we talked about what metaphysics Casper DAV just shows metaphysics in his Landscapes I want to show you the Gloom of Life the Gloom yeah and the hope that is the there the lack of Hope sometimes the the death death is everywhere you would say uh you know there is kind of a a religious element to that to his wife as well it was quite as serious about religion so I think he would say to us uh that we are selfish we are immoral um you know and all that uh uh no I don't know if he'd say that I think he would say I think he would say implicitly your person experience what you feel inside of you when you connect with nature that's what's important that's and he's not going to say he's not going to use the word selfish but it's implied that selfish experience yeah to commune with nature not to have other people tell you about how it's supposed to be but you feel it and also yeah and also there's there's a very fast handed element to his art where you know he goes alone to nature it doesn't it doesn't go to Nature because uh it's just a popular thing that we're doing he actually he was a pioneer of a brand new art movement about Landscapes it was very original and and that is something that we also so so he would emphasize going and exploring things on our own instead of relying on other people's judgment because when he was studying art uh when he was young he didn't follow the Traditions he went to do other things so that will be a life lesson I think you can draw from him absolutely all right yatan all right uh fun yes I very much enjoy this and uh thank you to all the viewers who have joined us in this wonderful discussion um any any final things we should say Luke I I want to say thank you to you yonathan thank you to the commenters the viewers the listeners later on and thank you to Caspar for joining us yes thank you for Casper absolutely for for giving us the gift of this amazing amazing art um all right so we will see you in a future iteration we shall announce once we have the details but thank you very much this has been the first edition of the Dead artist society live stream so uh thank you very much Luke for joining me it was a great pleasure and I learned a lot about these paintings now every time and and just another thing another anecdote every time I look at these paintings I learn something new especially when I I have other people to discuss it with somebody notices something that I haven't seen before no matter how many times I've actually seen it in person in the computer always learn something new so always go and explore great art always go and explore dead artists thank you very much have a great rest of your weekend everybody thank you