Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age

Grave does a fantastic job of making Caspar David Friedrich's oeuvre accessible. And the pictures. The pictures and the quality of the pages is just outstanding. I am so so impressed. It's rare I care about how a book looks -- it's the content that's important. The content of this book is so excellent (I mean, I definitely take some issues with some analysis, and would prefer a bit more analysis in other parts though I realize the book would become less accessible that way) that I can really appreciate the book itself is gorgeous, too. Loved it!! What a pleasant way to begin to ease myself back into Art History! Get this if you're into serious academic work and also get this if you're not!

Solid book about Friedrich- good reproduction, nice printing! The Cover painting is his most famous and has been used as the cover of many other books: everything from Frankenstein to tomes of Philosophy!

This book is beautifully presented. Lots of information about Friedrich , different periods of style, personalinformation. Photographs are stunning.

This books is very carefully researched and nicely produced, although the paper and colors are not as good as I would have expected for the price.

Best Friedrich book

Exactly what my daughter-in-law wanted for Christmas. She got the print on the cover from another company and the book.

After the reviews (and the price) I was hoping for a really beautiful book that truly showed off Friedrich's work. But I feel like there's a lot of wasted visual space that they could have used to show the artwork and details of it ij a better light... The illustrations seem more muted than photos I've seen of his work in other places... Granted there aren't a ton of works still in print about him so this is prob the best in print but it was just a little disappointing to me after other reviews extolling how beautiful it was. His works are grouped in an interesting manner and the biographical history seems well writtenI just wished they could have made better use of the format and showcased his work more

A remarkable book: thorough, intelligent, and with useful indications of where to see all the works, Noone could dislike it, everyone could learn from it.

This is a beautifully produced book, with a comprehensive set of paintings and drawings, coupled with detailed commentaries on every aspect of Friedrich's life and art.

Great book for great artist

El formato está muy bien y las reproducciones tienen buena calidad

Everything OK!

While the Thames and Hudson monograph devoted to Caspar David Friedrich (written by Werner Hoffman) is very good, and was the best book on Friedrich for over a decade, Prestels' new release is even better. Johannes Graves has written an intriguing account of the troubled life and idiosyncratic works of this important German artist. It's oversized 12" x 14" dimensions are put to good use, with full-page and double-page reproductions that are sometimes even larger than some of Friedrichs' canvases. It is a generous tome in all respects, giving due attention to an often misunderstood artist, criticized by his peers and even his friends, among them Goethe. When he died his work was largely forgotten, and it wasn't until the 20th century that he was rediscovered and given his rightful place in the pantheon of Great Romantic Artists, alongside Delacroix and Gericault. His misfortune survived the grave without him, it seems, when Hitler sang his praises and infected Friedrich's reputation the same way he infected Nietzsche and Bocklin and German Shepherds. Although the logic behind these negative associations is thin, at best, it can be boiled down to it's idiotic essence -- Hitler, being unspeakably awful, must have only liked unspeakably awful things. While this might hold true for moustaches and opera, it certainly did not for Friedrich (or Bocklin or German Shepherds). Graves' book gives us ample evidence of the artists' innovative genius, with paintings like 'Monk by the Sea' and 'The Wreck of the Hope'. He was not the most technically gifted of painters, but he was talented in a very intuitive way, finding the sublime in places no one had before. A large selection of paintings are on display throughout the 300 or so pages, as well as many of his beautiful sepia-toned drawings, which are impressive in their own right. Also included is a slipcase, which is always nice for keeping the book in the best shape possible. I know I will be revisiting this volume for years to come.