No German painter evokes such strong emotions as Caspar David Friedrich: his evening skies remain icons of longing, his mountain vistas testaments to the grandeur of nature. He inspired Samuel Beckett to write Waiting for Godot and Walt Disney to create Bambi. Goethe, however, was so enraged by the enigmatic melancholy of Friedrich’s paintings that he wanted to smash them on the edge of a table.
In a sweeping journey through time, bestselling author Florian Illies tells the story of Friedrich’s paintings and their impact on subsequent generations. Many of his most beautiful paintings were burned, first in his birthplace and then in World War II; others, like the Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, emerge from the mists of history a hundred years after Friedrich's death. Illies recounts the story of how Friedrich's paintings ended up at the Russian czar's court, others among a pile of winter tires in a Mafia car repair shop, and others still in the kitchen of a German social housing apartment. Adored by Hitler and Rainer Maria Rilke, despised by Stalin and by the generation of 68, this compelling narrative dances through 250 years of history as seen through Friedrich’s art and life. As a result, the man himself becomes flesh and blood before our very eyes.
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
ISBN: 9781509567546
Number of pages: 220
Weight: 680 g
Dimensions: 222 x 146 x 15 mm
"One of the most beautiful books I've read this year."Elke Heidenreich, Der Spiegel"A fascinating tale of the life and afterlife of the great Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, drawn with a careful and quiet hand."Alexander Nemerov, author of The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s"Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes were full of melancholy and longing, quiet hope and a fierce love for his Northern Heimat. Too dark for his contemporaries, they sold poorly. Later generations found themselves in his paintings – always for their own reasons, but not always the right ones. Florian Illies’ sparkling arabesque - part fact, part fiction - now brings to life the silent magic of Friedrich’s Romanticism across time and space."Cordula Grewe, Indiana University Bloomington"Composed of a series of vignettes structured around the elements, The Magic of Silence takes the reader on an evocative journey through Friedrich’s life, work, and legacy. Bringing Friedrich’s landscapes into dialogue with future events the artist could have never anticipated, Illies captures the timelessness and enduring relevance of his paintings."Nina Amstutz, University of Oregon"Florian Illies has written an accessible book about the life and checkered afterlife of Friedrich and his art presented in a narrative text, often dialogic, based on biography and the observations of diverse subsequent commentators. Structured as snapshots of intermittent moments throughout two centuries in chapters organized according to the four elements interpreted literally and metaphorically, the material combines information for the general reader as well as occasional little-known details for the specialist. Above all, Illies provides evidence that 'the more we learn about Friedrich and the history of his paintings, the more complicated it gets.'"Marsha Morton, Pratt Institute“A welcome appreciation of the greatest painter of German Romanticism.”Kirkus Reviews
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