Woman before the Rising Sun

In 1818, at the age of 44, Caspar David Friedrich married Caroline Brommer, a cheerful, 25-year-old Saxon woman. Brommer was a positive influence on the artist, as women appear with greater frequency in his work after his marriage. A new, friendly element seems to enter his pictures.

In Woman before the Rising Sun (also Woman before the Setting Sun), the silhouette of a woman is set against the intense reddish-yellow of the sky. It is difficult to interpret the fervent gesture of her outstretched arms and the stylized rays radiating from the mountains, heralding the presence of the invisible sun.

Brommer was likely the model for the female figure in an old German dress. Since she is stepping towards the light like an early Christian in prayer, some have sought to interpret the painting as a communion with nature. On the other hand, the atmosphere evoked in Friedrich's painting might be interpreted as that of dusk; the path that ends abruptly is an announcement of death and the boulders scattered alongside the path are symbols of faith. Few of Friedrich's pictures are as emphatic and almost exaggeratedly symbolic in their effect - factors which render the painting not unproblematic for the viewer.