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''The Monk by the Sea'' ((ドイツ語:Der Mönch am Meer)) is an oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1808 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown together with the painting ''The Abbey in the Oakwood'' (''Abtei im Eichwald'') in the Berlin Academy exhibition of 1810. On Friedrich's request ''The Monk by the Sea'' was hung above ''The Abbey in the Oakwood''.〔Held: Romantik , 2003, p. 81.〕 After the exhibition both pictures were bought by king Frederick Wilhelm III for his collection.〔Friedrich, Norbert Wolf, Taschen, p. 31.〕 Today the paintings hang side by side in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. For its lack of concern with creating the illusion of depth—which had been a traditional aspect of landscape painting—''The Monk by the Sea'' was Friedrich's most radical composition. The broad expanses of sea and sky emphasize the meager figure of the monk, standing before the vastness of nature and the presence of God.〔van Prooyen, Kristina. (The Realm of the Spirit: Caspar David Friedrich's artwork in the context of romantic theology, with special reference to Friedrich Schleiermacher ) ''Journal of the Oxford University History Society'', Winter 2004.〕 ==Development== A single figure, dressed in a long garment and with his chin on one hand, stands on a low dune sprinkled with grass. The figure, usually identified as a monk, has turned almost completely away from the viewer and surveys a rough sea and a gray, blank sky that takes up about three quarters of the picture. It is unclear whether he is standing on a high rock or only on a gentle slope to the sea. The dune forms an inexpressive triangle in the composition, at the farthest point of which is the figure. Contrasting with the dark ocean there are several whitecaps of waves sometimes mistaken for seagulls. Although Friedrich's paintings are landscapes, he designed and painted them in his studio, using freely drawn plein air sketches, from which he chose the most evocative elements to integrate into an expressive composition. The composition of ''The Monk by the Sea'' shows evidence of this reductive process, as Friedrich removed elements from the canvas after they were painted. Recent scientific investigations have revealed that he had initially painted two small sailing ships on the horizon, which he later removed.〔 Friedrich continued to modify the details of the painting right up to its exhibition—to the sky's grey was added blue, with stars and a moon—but the basic composition always stayed the same.〔Die Briefe/ Caspar David Friedrich, p. 66〕 The picture appeared at a time when Friedrich had his first public success and critical acknowledgment with his controversial ''Tetschener Altar'', a work that explicitly fused the landscape format with a religious theme. ''The Monk by the Sea'' furthered his success and drew much attention. Friedrich probably began the painting in Dresden, 1808. In a letter of February 1809, he described the image for the first time. The stages in its conception were also documented by guests to his studio. In June 1809, the wife of painter Gerhard von Kügelgen, an acquaintance of Friedrich, visited him and later criticized the painting in a letter; she was put off by the loneliness of the setting and the lack of consolation that movement or narrative might provide the "unending space of air". Art historian Albert Boime believed that the figure of the monk was Friedrich, walking on the cliffs at Rügen, which would place the subject near the site where a Protestant mystic built a chapel for poor fishermen who were far from home and wished to profess their faith.〔Eisler, Colin. (''Masterworks in Berlin: A City's Paintings Reunited'' ), Little Brown and Company, 1996.〕 The identification of the monk as a self-portrait has been accepted by other scholars, both for physical resemblances to Friedrich (the long blond hair and round skull), and for the fact that, in keeping with the perception of artists as belonging to a "higher priesthood", Friedrich later painted himself in a monk's clothing.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Monk by the Sea」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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