Schwäne im Schilf im ersten Frührot

Two swans sit low among dark reeds while the first red of dawn spreads behind them, in a small canvas Friedrich painted in 1832. By then he was out of fashion. The younger public wanted brighter, more worldly pictures, and the quiet, inward landscapes that had made his name in the 1810s were selling poorly. This is a late, private kind of work. No ruined abbey, no lone figure seen from behind, just reeds close to the eye, still water, and a sky turning from night. The swans are half hidden, more felt than displayed. Friedrich had only a few working years left before a stroke in 1835 largely ended his painting, and pieces this small and still are what he made in them.