On a Sailing Ship

For most of his life this painter filled his canvases with single, solitary figures staring into fog or ruins. This one is different, and the reason is personal. In 1818, at 44, Friedrich married Caroline Bommer, a much younger woman, and soon after took a trip along the Baltic coast near his hometown. The two figures at the front of the boat, holding hands and looking toward the far shore with its faint spires, are usually read as the newlyweds themselves. They have their backs to us, sailing toward a town they have not reached yet. It is one of the very few times Friedrich let his own life show up plainly in his work.