About the Show:
For its last pre-expansion exhibition at the Nieuwe Herengracht facility, the Hermitage Amsterdam chose to showcase Caspar David Friedrich and the German Romantic Landscape. Two themes are at play here. First, Friedrich's unusual, highly symbolic, deeply religious works--even now--cannot be fully appreciated unless seen in context, alongside those of his German Romantic predecessors, contemporaries and followers.
Second, the exhibition serves as ample evidence that Russian collectors (particularly Tsar Nicholas I and his family) were early and ardent supporters of German Romantic landscapes. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg allowed the entirety of its Caspar David Friedrich collection (the largest in the world outside of Germany) to travel to its Amsterdam satellite for this show.
Caspar David Friedrich and the German Romantic Landscape was on view at the Hermitage Amsterdam from September 20, 2008 through January 18, 2009.