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Is the mist swirling in? Will it come down across the mountain slopes, swiftly hiding the landscape in the way typical for these regions? Or is the mist dissolving? Are the objects appearing or disappearing? Only when we look closely do we see the morning sun as it breaks over the rock formations at the very top of the mountain peak. Gradually, the billowing clouds are clearing, a piece of blue sky already shimmering through – the mist is lifting....

In this work, Caspar David Friedrich painted the Honigstein ridge in Saxon Switzerland as seen from the Amselgrund valley. From this perspective, the mountain resembles an isosceles triangle – a symbol of the Holy Trinity. It is then a rock of faith, steadfastly constant no matter how the weather changes.

Friedrich’s composition seems all but modern. With its few motifs, limited palette and simplicity of form, it almost tends to abstract art, a reduction Friedrich achieves through his use of the hazy mist. Moreover, through the mist – also found in many of his other works – he veils the scene in a special silence, producing a mystical mood and creating space for mystery and our imagination. And he gives a tangible form to the contrast we feel between the cold, damp mist and the warmth of sun breaking through, lighting the mountain peak like a promise. In keeping with that message, a cross – hardly a coincidence – on top of the highest rock catches the light as it shimmers through the broken cloud. In this way, Friedrich also endows his depiction of nature with the symbolic religious message of rising up into the light.