Friedrich, Caspar David. Swans in the reeds Hermitage ~ part 12

Description of Caspar Friedrich’s painting Swans in the Reeds

Friedrich was a famous German painter who was a follower of Romanticism. Like other followers of the movement, he believed that the whole world was contained within man, that there was nothing more valuable than man and his personality, and that emotions were valuable.

His paintings, like those of other Romanticists, are always full of very bright, very pure colors and sometimes reflect reality in a slightly exaggerated way. Exaggeratedly light or bright, for example. Each painting has a central image around which it is centered or a central line on which it rests-a ship, a lighthouse, a skyline, the reflection of the sun in the sea.

"Swans in the Reeds" is no exception. The first time you look at it your attention is inevitably drawn to the swans, one reaching for the other, which, in contrast, throws its neck back, looking a little mockingly, a little downcast. They sit in the reeds, nestled apparently for the night, their necks arched haughtily, their eyes attentive and black.

Their fluffy white wing feathers cast yellow shadows, and the birds themselves look alive, ready, it seems, at any moment, to hiss and rustle, making themselves comfortable. Under the swans and dark, almost black, reeds there is a pond.

Dark deep water, in which hardly anyone would think to swim, small red flowers stretching to the sun on the very shore. And above them is the sky, to which much attention is paid. It is bright, bright, full of azure and yellow reflections, it looks like water and seems ready to splash out. Against the background of the black reeds it seems shining, unbearably contrasting, and the picture seems to be divided into two halves.

One half is the sky. The other half is the pond and swans. There is a contrast between the earthly and the ordinary, the beautiful and the familiar, the heavenly and the radiant, evoking delight, the unearthly and the marvelous.

And, as if agreeing with himself, combining the two halves into one picture, the artist concludes that they are one whole and impossible without each other.