画室中的卡斯帕·大卫·弗里德里希

Georg Friedrich Kersting and Caspar David Friedrich were friends, and around 1811 Kersting painted the older man at work in his Dresden studio. What strikes most viewers is the emptiness of the room. There is an easel, a couple of palettes, a straightedge and a T-square on the bare wall, and almost nothing else. Friedrich had the shutters partly closed and kept the space stripped like this on purpose. He called his working time the consecrated hour and did not want to be disturbed in it. He painted his wide, still landscapes from memory and imagination rather than from the view, so he needed no window onto the world outside, only quiet.