Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog

The Framework of Interpretation

 

“The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but what he sees inside himself,” reflected David Caspar Friedrich, explaining the purpose of his art.

 

Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog is an oil-on-canvas painting by German Romantic Caspar David Friedrich. Considered one of the masterpieces of the Romantic Movement, Friedrich painted it circa 1818, when romantic ideas were well-settled within European culture (Payne, 2024). The Romantic Movement was an artistic and intellectual period in which people focused on emotion, individualism and nature. Artists believed emotion should dictate the creative process, and the understanding and portrayal of those emotions was the ultimate purpose of their craft (du Plessis, 2022). As the quote by Friedrich specifies, the artist had to look not only at what his eyes saw but also at what he could feel within. Hence, as Friedrich attempted to understand the grandness of life, he created Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog.

 

Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog depicts a man standing atop a precipice as he contemplates the endless foggy mountains and trees encompassing the landscape beyond. Friedrich was known to attempt to comprehend life, including its tragedies and beauty, through German landscapes, looking at them with what he called his inner eye (Cohen, 2018). Thus, the painting not only has a man contemplating nature but inspires a sense of reflection. To achieve this, the most important tool the painting uses is the Rückenfigur Technique. This compositional technique means having a figure that gives its back to the audience, inviting them to become a second observer, allowing them to identify themselves with the figure and think together (Pieces of Art, 2021).

 

Friedrich designed the painting to invite the audience to appreciate the spectacular scenery. The foreground consists of the man staring into the landscape, while the middleground and background comprise the infinite beauty of nature the man admires (Scott, 2020). The painting has organic lines, texture, and shapes that depict the natural world, inciting realism and immersion. Additionally, the tone of the painting is well-balanced, as the lightness and darkness promote harmony, developing a restful place to admire and wonder. Friedrich uses dark colours to bring attention to the protagonist, the man, but he applies a mix of blue and pink for the sky and fog, suggesting a renovated day. When understanding all these elements of the painting, it becomes clear that Friedrich’s purpose was to create a painting with clear intentions, where the man may be the protagonist, but the landscape is the journey (Payne, 2024).

 

The Romantic Movement explored what artists and thinkers called the sublime, meaning emotions so potent that they left humans astonished. These emotions fill the mind so intensely that the mind cannot wander elsewhere. Therefore, through this painting, Friedrich intended to tell a story of the sublimeness of life’s journey. Hence, whether the painting depicts the start or the ending of a journey, the emotions it transmits are of life’s overwhelming and incomprehensible beauty.

 

The Creative Process

 

To translate Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog’s story and emotions, I made a piece for solo violin that, similar to the painting, focused the piece’s intention through a single element; the man became the violin, and the notes became the journey.

 

Structurally, the piece is a play on a theme with variations. It consists of three melodies with similar features separated by a growing four-note motif. The purpose is to bring personality to the piece, creating a structure that suggests a constantly growing journey, seeking the culmination of a single idea.

 

Harmonically, the piece modulates for every variation. It begins in C minor, moves to D minor, and, ultimately, E minor, taking a step higher with every variation. The purpose is to create a sense of moving upwards, climbing a ladder and reaching the top of the mountain, the sublimeness of life’s journey.

 

Rhythmically, the piece has contrasting rhythms between the variations and what separates them. The variations hold a long, reflective rhythm. Meanwhile, the four-note growing pattern between the variations has a fast, increasing tempo. The purpose is to express the pace of life’s journey, where we always move forward, sometimes faster and sometimes slower, no matter our stage.

Melodically, the piece attempts to translate the sublimeness of life’s journey through the balance of slow, reflective melodies with significant intervallic leaps and well-paced melodies with smaller but more reliable intervallic gaps. Supporting itself from the emotions we encounter, the purpose is to slowly build the overwhelming and incomprehensible exploration of the beauty of life.

 

Additionally, the piece was recorded live with Helen Cass, the concertmaster of the DeHavilland Philharmonic Orchestra, as the violin’s tone is essential to tell the story and emotions of the painting truly. Moreover, to develop the Rückenfigur Technique in the music, which is the most crucial element of the painting, the piece is accompanied by birds singing and wind blowing. These elements help the audience put themselves in the shoes of the wanderer, as they inspire the presence of diegetic sound within the final work, developing an in-world atmosphere along with the story and emotions the music tells. Finally, despite sacrificing a little bit of the violin's tone, in the mix, the violin is further in its lower and middle end, enhancing the sense of looking beyond, the depth of the view and the reverberation of our thoughts, and closer in its higher end, enriching the journey’s end.

 

The Purpose of the Composition

 

Like the whole project, the purpose of this composition is to explore Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog’s story and emotions through music. However, inevitably, the project also ends up sparking the creation of pieces which inspire a more personal reflection. Therefore, beyond telling Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog’s story through music, this piece is a journey to reflect on life’s overwhelming and incomprehensible beauty. Every single one of us has a mountain to climb. We all have to walk our path. Sometimes it is paved, sometimes it is not. Sometimes we have to run, sometimes we walk. Nevertheless, no matter what happens, as Romantic Austrian Poet Rainer Maria-Rilke said, “Let everything happen to you, beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

 

Bibliography

 

Cohen, A. (2018). Unravelling the Mysteries behind Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer’. [online] Artsy. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-unraveling-mysteries-caspar-david-friedrichs-wanderer.

 

du Plessis, A. (2022). ‘Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’ by Caspar David Friedrich - An Analysis. [online] Art In Context. Available at: https://artincontext.org/wanderer-above-the-sea-of-fog-by-caspar-david-friedrich/.

 

Payne, J. (2024). Great Art Explained: Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3NmCvrUYUA.

 

Pieces of Art. (2021). Analysis: Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog by Casper Friedrich. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD_KTGwXsSk.‌

 

Scott, D. (2020). A Closer Look at Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. [online] Draw Paint Academy. Available at: https://drawpaintacademy.com/wanderer-above-the-sea-of-fog/.‌