"Relief, Nay, Liberation"

"How often was I able, even in the later years, to cleanse my innermost soul of dark depression by painting dark fog-shrouded landscapes, snow-covered graveyards, and similar things. Perhaps these pictures appealed to other souls as much in darkness as my own. As for me, they always brought me relief, nay, liberation." - Carl Gustav Carus

Carl Gustav Carus, "Das Kolosseum in einer Mondnacht" (The Colosseum at Midnight"), Oil on Canvas, 1828, 47.5 × 37 cm
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Carl Gustav Carus, "Morning Fog", Watercolor on Paper mounted on Board, 1825, 20x26 cm
Source: Web Gallery of Art


Carl Gustav Carus, "Blick auf Dresden von der Brühlschen Terrasse", Oil on Canvas, 1830-1831, 28.5 × 21.7 cm
Source: Wikimedia Commons

I've been enjoying German Romantic painting lately. I ran across Carl Gustav Carus today while making a brief library visit. He studied under one of my favorite landscape painters - Caspar David Friedrich, so it's no surprise that I enjoy his work as well. Carus wrote that "The chief aim of landscape painting is to present a certain mood of the soul (meaning) by showing a corresponding mood in nature (truth)."

Quotes from German Romantic Painting by Hubert Schrade, 1967