Ступени жизни

Friedrich painted this around 1834, near the end of his life, and it is set on a real shore, the flat coast near Greifswald where he was born. An old man in a dark coat stands with his back to us, walking toward two adults and two children on the rise above a small harbour. Out on the water five ships sit at different distances, some far out, one nearly home, and they quietly rhyme with the ages of the people on the beach. The figures have been identified as Friedrich's own family, the old man himself, his children and a nephew. He was ageing and in failing health when he made it, and the ship closest to shore, the one just coming in, sits directly behind the old man with his back turned.