Moonrise by the Sea or Moonrise over the Sea (German: Mondaufgang am Meer) is an 1822
oil-on-canvas painting by German painter
Caspar David Friedrich. The work depicts a
romantic seascape.
Three young people, two women side by side and a man further back, are sitting on a large boulder by the sea, silhouetted against the sky as they watch the moon rising to the east above a band of clouds. In the distance are two sailing vessels, ghosting on a light breeze towards the spectators on the shore. The painting is probably a view of the
Baltic Sea, near Friedrich's birthplace in
Swedish Pomerania. It may be based on the beach at
Stubbenkammer near
Rügen.
The work was commissioned by banker and art collector
Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener, together with a second work, The Lonely Tree (Der einsame Baum), to create a pair of "times of the day", depicting morning and evening landscape scenes, in a tradition of
Claude Lorrain. It was completed before November 1822 and has been held by the
Berlin National Gallery since 1861, donated by Wagener as part of its founding collection. It is now in the
Alte Nationalgalerie of the
Staatliche Museen in Berlin.
A similarly named but much larger painting from 1821 has been held by the
Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg since 1928, and was formerly in the
Ropsha Palace [
de;
fr], and had been hung in the drawing room of
Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich; it measures 137 × 170 centimetres (54 × 67 in).
Caspar David Friedrich, Moonrise over the Sea (Mondaufgang am Meer), 1821, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Caspar David Friedrich, The Lonely Tree (Der einsame Baum), 1822, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Moonrise by the Sea or Moonrise over the Sea (German: Mondaufgang am Meer) is an 1822
oil-on-canvas painting by German painter
Caspar David Friedrich. The work depicts a
romantic seascape.
Three young people, two women side by side and a man further back, are sitting on a large boulder by the sea, silhouetted against the sky as they watch the moon rising to the east above a band of clouds. In the distance are two sailing vessels, ghosting on a light breeze towards the spectators on the shore. The painting is probably a view of the
Baltic Sea, near Friedrich's birthplace in
Swedish Pomerania. It may be based on the beach at
Stubbenkammer near
Rügen.
The work was commissioned by banker and art collector
Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener, together with a second work, The Lonely Tree (Der einsame Baum), to create a pair of "times of the day", depicting morning and evening landscape scenes, in a tradition of
Claude Lorrain. It was completed before November 1822 and has been held by the
Berlin National Gallery since 1861, donated by Wagener as part of its founding collection. It is now in the
Alte Nationalgalerie of the
Staatliche Museen in Berlin.
A similarly named but much larger painting from 1821 has been held by the
Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg since 1928, and was formerly in the
Ropsha Palace [
de;
fr], and had been hung in the drawing room of
Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich; it measures 137 × 170 centimetres (54 × 67 in).
Caspar David Friedrich, Moonrise over the Sea (Mondaufgang am Meer), 1821, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Caspar David Friedrich, The Lonely Tree (Der einsame Baum), 1822, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin