O Porto de Greifswald

Greifswald was Friedrich's home town. He was born there in 1774, when the Baltic port still belonged to the Swedish crown, part of a stretch of Pomerania Sweden had held for over a century. By the time he painted this, around 1819, the war years were over and the town had passed to Prussia. He set it far back on the horizon, its church towers rising over flat water, and gave the moored ships in front tall, almost exaggerated masts, a habit of his that carried over to how he drew spires. The foreground is little more than marsh grass and reflection.