The Stages of Life

Stages of Life is an allegorical painting of the painter Caspar David Friedrich.

Description

The picture shows a shore on the Baltic coast in the evening twilight. At sea, three sailing ships can be seen on the return. The big ship in the middle has already begun to collect the sail. Two smaller sailboats are under full sail to the shore already quite close. On the shore there is a group of five people who are recognized by their clothing as city people. In its center there is a boy holding up a Swedish flag, while a girl reaches for it. Right next to them sits a woman who inclined to the two children and has his right hand raised in a gesture.

The group forms a semicircle, on the extreme point are the children; left and right of them a younger man and a young woman. On the far left is an old man who is a little off the circle.

Wife and children are dressed for summer, while the old man wearing a coat and a fur hat. This older man turns his back on the viewer and so reminiscent of other works by the artist.

Five people are on the beach and five ships on the sea, all of which approach the shore.

Stages of Life in the picture

The stages of life are reflected both in the people and in the boats. Caspar David Friedrich in the fur is already facing the afterlife. As a slender man with cylinder he is still full of energy, the younger woman and her children are an expression of youth. The two boats on the horizon represent the impermanence, the great sailing boat with two escort boats in the foreground represents hope, his wife and his children.

Comment

Frederick's birthplace Greifswald belonged with Western Pomerania from 1630 to 1815 for Sweden. The painting shows Frederick's younger daughter Agnes Adelheid and his son Gustav Adolf 20 years after inclusion of Greifswald to Prussia with a Swedish flag.

The Swedish writer Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom wrote about the painter:

The view is over the headland to the open sea, lies behind the Swede. Sweden was the liberal democratic-minded citizens as the land of the free peasants. Frederick also his son, who holds the Swedish flag in his hand, in the name of Swedish kings ( " Gustav Adolf " ) baptized.