Detail of the Morning Mist in the Mountains by Friedrich in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2025

Title: Morning Mist in the Mountains

Artist: Caspar David Friedrich

Date: Probably 1807-8

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 27 15/16 × 40 15/16 in. (71 × 104 cm)

Framed: 46 5/8 in. × 33 7/16 in. × 3 1/8 in. (118.5 × 85 × 7.9 cm)

Credit Line: Thüringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg, Rudolstadt (203)

Object No.: CDF.019

The mountain seems to dissolve among tendrils of vapor, which gradually clear around the summit. Atop the peak a tiny cross is barely visible against the blue sky, suggesting that divinity is discernible only to those who are prepared to seek it out. Friedrich gravitated toward motifs of cloud and fog because he thought that they magnified the mystery and grandeur of the landscape. The delicate layers of mist in this painting reveal his enthusiasm for the properties of oil paint, a medium he had only recently mastered. This picture was acquired by the princely family of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, important supporters of Romanticism.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/caspar-david-friedrich-the-soul-of-nature/exhibition-objects