Friedrich's works have an extraordinary, haunting quality that is the product of an elaborate and consistent system of symbolism. The elements that make up a traditional landscape painting -- high and low, near and far, light and dark, summer and winter -- are all used symbolically. Declaring that "every true work of art must express a distinct feeling", Friedrich painted the yearning of people for the infinite and their perpetual separation from it. Among his characteristic subjects, depicted in a sharply delineated style, were gothic ruins, stark contorted trees, bleak seascapes, and mountain crags often seen under mysterious lighting and peopled with lonely figures.

This comprehensive and marvelously illustrated survey examines Friedrich's paintings, watercolors, and drawings in a new critical light, and places the artist in his intellectual and historical context. His difficult relationship with Goethe, his nationalism, the critical judgments of his contemporaries, his position in European art: these and many other topics are explored.