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Friedrich Through Trump-Colored Glasses

The Met’s new show of echt German romanticist Caspar David Friedrich, whom Hitler co-opted for fascist appeal, raises some interesting questions about our cultural moment. Is Friedrich, the progenitor of a style now more familiar in comic books than art history books, worth taking seriously?

Caspar David Friedrich
The show features works on loan from three German museums—including the main draw, Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, the familiar image of a windswept early 19th century figure perched on a rocky outcropping, surveying a vista filled with scuds of fog that could easily be mistaken for a tempestuous sea. Photo: Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance/Getty Images
Marion Maneker
February 11, 2025

Why is the Met’s new show, Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature—a detailed retrospective of an artist that most Americans are only familiar with due to a popular meme—getting so much attention? I thought about this question last week as I stood on the steps of the Met early one morning, in a freezing drizzle, listening to a clutch of German art dignitaries chatter away brightly as we waited for the doors to open. There are probably two answers.