Rocky Reef on the Seashore

The format of "Rocky Reef" is small, and it is painted with a very narrow range of colours, but nevertheless, it makes a monumental impression. From a raised perspective on the shore, the view reaches over a narrow bay to the rocky reef in the middle ground of the painting. Its rough, point- ed rocks stretch into the blue night. The high moon is hidden behind the clouds, but its light illuminates the landscape - the waves behind the reef somewhat more than the shore in the foreground. The size of the two trees growing on the shore offers a measure of how enormous the rock formation before the coast must be.

Friedrich presumably used an etching of the so-called "Needles" of the Isle of Wight as a model. This work, like some of his other sea images, indicates possible transitions, describes a threshold situation, and can be read symbolically: The safe shore and the possible dangers in life's journey are metaphorically captured in the landscape. The moonlight offers solace, facilitates orientation, stands for the light in the darkness that Christ brings into the world. Yet, the guiding star that Friedrich followed as an artist and as a man was always his individual, inner light.

"Keep a pure, childlike sense within you and follow your inner voice absolutely, for it is the godly within us and will not lead us astray. You should consider every stirring of your soul to be sacred, venerate every heavenly sign, for that is the art within us! In rapturous hours, it takes on vivid form, and this form is your painting.