Caspar David Friedrich

The Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist is considered the quintessential German Romantic painting, due to it's focus on the natural beauty of the world and a focus on the self.

The Monk By the Sea reflectst the isolation and emptiness Friedrich felt upon the invasion of his homeland, Prussia, by Napoleon, during the Napoleonic Wars.

Caspar David Friedrich was a German painter who primarily painted landscapes. His work is synonymous with German Romanticism as an art movement, as he loved to highlight (his idea of) Germany's untouched and beautiful landscapes, perhaps none more so iconically done than in his famous painting, Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist. Friedrich's paintings, along with the paintings of most romantics of the time, would specifically focus on the beauty of nature and simplicity. (Pound)

Friedrich himself was a German nationalist; he believed in the abolishment of the monarchy of Germany and in general a more liberal government than the one at the time (Smith). Another of his paintings, A Monk by the Sea, highlights his feelings of loneliness and hopelessness of Germany's future following Napoleon's invasion of Germany, and the reprecussions of that invasion. Friedrich died in obscurity, but Adolf Hitler loved his work for its romantic ideals of Germany, and Friedrich's work had a stigma attached to it that lasted several decades after World War II had ended. (Hickey)