The Tree of Crows
The Tree of Crows | |
---|---|
German: Krähenbaum | |
Artist | Caspar David Friedrich |
Year | c. 1822 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 59.0 cm × 73.0 cm (23.23 in × 28.74 in) |
Location | Musée du Louvre, Paris |
The Tree of Crows (also known as Raven Tree) is an oil painting of 1822 by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. Acquired by the Musée du Louvre in 1975 (the institution's first acquisition of a work by the artist, followed by Seaside by Moonlight in 2000), it has been called one of Friedrich's "most compelling paintings."[1] The painting depicts a twisted oak tree, bare but for a few dead leaves, seen against an evening sky. An inscription on the back of the canvas refers to the hill at the painting's center as a Hünengrab, or dolmen, a prehistoric burial ground.[2][3] In the distance can be seen the ocean, and Cape Arkona's chalk cliffs, a favorite subject of Friedrich's.[2] Two crows are perched on the oak, while a flock (also known, more correctly, as a "murder") descends toward it. In the darkened foreground are a hacked trunk and the upright stump of another oak.
The oak is based on a drawing dated 3 May 1809, to which Friedrich added branches at the left and elongated others so as to stretch its forms across the picture plane; the tree in the painting has the overall shape of a rhombus, its web of contorted branches taking on a dramatic presence.[4] Contrasted with the serene layers of chromatic clouds, the tree's forms have been likened to "many flailing arms."[5] The foreground may be seen as representing death, with the distant sky offering consoling beauty and the promise of redemption afterlife.[3][5]
A single dominant oak was also the subject of two later vertical compositions painted by Friedrich. In those paintings, the trees appear to stand in resignation, whereas that of The Tree of Crows seems animated by desperation.[5]
See also
Notes
References
- Börsch-Supan, Helmut et al. Baltic Light: Early Open-Air Painting in Denmark and North Germany, Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-300-08166-9
- Börsch-Supan, Helmut. Caspar David Friedrich, Prestel, 1990.
- Grave, Johannes (2017) [2012]. Caspar David Friedrich (2nd ed.). London/New York: Prestel. ISBN 978-3-7913-8357-6 (p. 178).
- Pomarède, Vincent . The Louvre: All the Paintings, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2011. ISBN 1579128866
Media related to The Tree of Crows (Friedrich) at Wikimedia Commons
- v
- t
- e
- Cairn in Snow (1807)
- Cross in the Mountains (1808)
- The Monk by the Sea (1808–1810)
- The Abbey in the Oakwood (1809–10)
- Mountain Landscape with Rainbow (1809–10)
- Morning on the Riesengebirge (1810–11)
- The Tombs of the Old Heroes (1812)
- Neubrandenburg (c. 1816)
- Two Men by the Sea (1817)
- The Gazebo (1818)
- Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)
- Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818)
- Seaside by Moonlight (1818)
- The Port of Greifswald (1818–1820)
- Two Men Contemplating the Moon; Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon (1820s)
- Evening (1821)
- River Bank in Fog (1821)
- The Lonely Tree (1822)
- Moonrise by the Sea (1822)
- The Tree of Crows (1822)
- Woman at a Window (1822)
- Hutten's Grave (1823)
- The Sea of Ice (1823–24)
- The Watzmann (1824–25)
- Cabin in the Snow (1827)
- Ships in Harbour, Evening (1828)
- The Temple of Juno in Agrigento (1828–1830)
- The Great Enclosure (1831)
- Ruins of Eldena Abbey in the Riesengebirge (1830–1834)
- Neubrandenburg Burning (1830–1835)
- Sunset (1830–1835)
- The Stages of Life (1835)
- The Woman with the Spider's Web (1803)
- Woman with a Raven at an Abyss (c. 1803)
- Boy Sleeping on a Grave (c. 1803)
- Caspar David Friedrich in his Studio (1811/1819 paintings)
- Boundaries of Time: Caspar David Friedrich (1986 film)
- Zauber der Stille (2023 biography)