Moonrise on an Empty Shore

1837/1839

Caspar David Friedrich

Artist, German, 1774 - 1840

Drawn and painted with ink and graphite, boulders and rocks painted in hazy, soft tones of fawn and sable brown fill the bottom third of this horizontal landscape drawing. Placid water leads back to a horizon that blends with the bone-brown sky above. A pale, cream-white full moon hangs low in the sky near the center of the composition.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    brush and brown ink over graphite on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Patrons' Permanent Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 25.2 x 39.5 cm (9 15/16 x 15 9/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1992.11.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Grummt 2011, no. 995

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Professor Ernst Ehlers [1835-1925], Göttingen, by 1902; (sale Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 1935, no. 84, pl. 6); Neff Collection, Stuttgart; C.G. Boerner, Dusseldorf; purchased 1992 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1906

  • Ausstellung deutscher Kunst aus der Zeit von 1775-1875: Zeichnungen, Aquarelle Pastelle, Ölstudien Miniaturen und Möbel, Königliche Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1906, no. 2438.

1992

  • Dürer to Diebenkorn: Recent Acquisitions of Art of Paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1992, no. 54.

2000

  • Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000-2001, 208, as Moonrise on an Empty Shore (Mondaufgang am Strand von Ruschwitz auf Rügen).

2010

  • German Master Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1580-1900, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, no cat.

2025

  • Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 2025, no. 79 [repro].

Bibliography

1960

  • Börsch-Supan, Helmut. Die Bildgestaltung bei Caspar David Friedrich, Munich, 1960 (dissertation, Berlin 1958), p. 79, note 1.

1970

  • Werner Sumowski, Caspar David Friedrich-Studien, Wiesbaden, 1970, pp.153, 155.

1973

  • Helmut Börsch-Supan and Karl Wilhelm Jähnig, Caspar David Friedrich, Gemälde, Druckgraphik und bildmässige Zeichnungen, Munich, 1973, p. 472, no. 487 (mentioned under nos. 483, 484, 485, 486).

1992

  • Robison, Andrew. "Moonrise on an Empty Shore." National Gallery of Art Circle Bulletin 9 (1992): 30-31.

2001

  • Robison, Andrew, "Later American Collectors of Later German Drawings," Master Drawings 39, no. 2, Summer 2001, 183, 184-185, fig. 14.

  • Parshall, Linda and Peter. "A Twice-Told Tale: Brentano & Schinkel on Paper." Art on Paper 5, no. 6 (July-August 2001): 42-43, fig. 6 (color).

2004

  • Festgabe für Marianne Küffner zum 3. Oktober 2004. Dusseldorf, 2004: no. 6, repro. (as "Rügenküste bei Monaufgang").

2010

  • Robison, Andrew. "German Drawings for the National Gallery of Art: The Wolfgang Ratjen Collection." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 42 (Spring 2010): 4, 5, 11, color fig. 4.

  • Kunz , Armin. “German Drawings, Washington.” Review of German Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection 1580-1900.” In The Burlington Magazine 152, no. 1,290 (October 2010): 702.

2011

  • Grummt, Christina. Caspar David Friedrich: Die Zeichnungen, Das gesamte Werk. 2 vols. Munich, 2011: 2: 901, no. 995, color repro.

2025

  • Hokanson, Alison, and Seidenstein, Joanna.Caspar Davide Friedrich: The Soul of Nature. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2025: 45, 80, ill. 258-259, 274 (n) 78, no. 79.

Inscriptions

verso, at top left, in graphite by a later hand: Friedrich mit [?]; upper left, in graphite by a later hand: azo/bs; lower left, in graphite by a later hand: mz/ma

Markings

none

Watermarks

none

Wikidata ID

Q64538105

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