Link only available on sub pages

Caspar David Friedrich’s Karlsruhe Sketchbook, as it is called today, is a very special treasure. It has its name from the town where it was previously kept by the descendants of Georg Friedrich Kersting. And that it ended up with Kersting certainly speaks for the close friendship between these two artists!

After all, Friedrich kept this sketchbook all his life, and constantly referred back to it. It contains numerous studies of trees, which he later used in important major works such as Dolmen in the Snow or Abbey in the Oakwood. Apart from studies of individual trees, the sketchbook also has elements of landscapes. Some of these appear in later works as well, for instance, in Friedrich’s Large Enclosure. So for that composition, he included studies he had made around thirty years before!

Friedrich filled the little sketchbook in a remarkably short time, just the few weeks from mid-April to early June in 1804. These are studies from his hikes through the countryside, especially around the River Elbe in Dresden. He meticulously recorded what he saw in pencil sketches, creating a wealth of material of trees, landscapes, boats, birds and clouds.

Friedrich had various bound sketchbooks and the Karlsruhe Sketchbook is just one of six that have survived. With the help of numerous sponsors, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) succeeded in jointly acquiring this original sketchbook. We are particularly pleased to be able to show it to the public for the first time on the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth.