Caspar David Friedrich was the principal painter of the German Romantic movement. His landscapes are not topographical records but spiritual meditations — figures seen from behind gazing into mist-shrouded mountains, moonlit seas, and ruined Gothic abbeys. He described his method as looking inward: 'The painter should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him.' His reputation faded after his death and was only restored in the 20th century.
