Caspar David Friedrich in his Studio

Caspar David Friedrich in his Studio refers to two paintings by the German romantic artist Georg Friedrich Kersting dated 1811 and 1819. Of these the 1819 version, now in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, is the best known. In both Kersting depicted fellow German painter Caspar David Friedrich in his studio. The picture shows the painter leaning on the back of a chair, focused entirely upon the easel before him. It is not possible for the viewer to see what the artist sees, because only the back of the canvas is visible. Friedrich, apparently lost in thought, holds in his right hand a brush, and in his left a mahlstick, palette, and several other brushes. The studio is ascetically bare containing only two other palettes, a straightedge and a t-square hanging on the wall.