L'abbazia nel querceto

Friedrich finished this in 1810, and when it was shown in Berlin that year the king of Prussia bought it on the spot. Look at what he bought. A line of monks carries a coffin toward the broken arch of a ruined Gothic church, guided by two small candles, while a fresh grave sits open in the snow. The oaks are bare and clawing, and only the tips of the ruin catch the last of the light. The abbey he had in mind was Eldena, near his home on the Baltic, wrecked long before in the Thirty Years' War when Swedish troops carted off its bricks. Friedrich was painting this while French soldiers under Napoleon occupied his own region and used its churches as barracks. So the dead church and the little funeral carried a private meaning for him. What stays with you is the ratio in the picture, how much of it is dark ground and dead trees, and how little is the sky still holding light.