Editing Caspar David Friedrich (section)

==Later life==
[[File:Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the sea of fog.jpg|right|thumb|''[[Wanderer above the Sea of Fog]]'' (1818), [[Kunsthalle Hamburg]]]]
Friedrich's reputation steadily declined over the final fifteen years of his life. As the ideals of early Romanticism passed from fashion, he came to be viewed as an eccentric and melancholy character, out of touch with the times. Gradually his patrons fell away.{{sfn|Vaughan|2004|p=263}} By 1820, he was living as a recluse and was described by friends as the "most solitary of the solitary".{{sfn|Schmitz|1940|pp=38–40}} Towards the end of his life he lived in relative poverty.{{sfn|Johnston|Leppien|Monrad|1999|p=45}} He became isolated and spent long periods of the day and night walking alone through woods and fields, often beginning his strolls before sunrise.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rewald |first=Sabine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XMMZy-c7QcYC |title=Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers |last2=Monrad |first2=Kasper |date=2001 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-004-2 |pages=14 |language=en}}</ref>

He suffered his first [[stroke]] in June 1835, which left him with minor limb paralysis and greatly reduced his ability to paint.{{sfn|Schmied|1995|p=44}} As a result, he was unable to work in oil; instead he was limited to watercolour, sepia and reworking older compositions. Although his vision remained strong, he had lost the full strength of his hand. Yet he was able to produce a final 'black painting', ''Seashore by Moonlight'' (1835–1836), described by Vaughan as the "darkest of all his shorelines, in which richness of tonality compensates for the lack of his former finesse".{{sfn|Vaughan|2004|pp=300–302}} Symbols of death appeared in his work from this period.{{sfn|Vaughan|2004|p=263}} Soon after his stroke, the [[House of Romanov|Russian royal family]] purchased a number of his earlier works, and the proceeds allowed him to travel to [[Teplice|Teplitz]]—in today's Czech Republic—to recover.{{sfn|Vaughan|2004|p=302}}

During the mid-1830s, Friedrich began a series of portraits and he returned to observing himself in nature. As the art historian [[William Vaughan (art historian)|William Vaughan]] observed, however, "He can see himself as a man greatly changed. He is no longer the upright, supportive figure that appeared in ''[[Two Men Contemplating the Moon]]'' in 1819. He is old and stiff&nbsp;... he moves with a stoop".{{sfn|Vaughan|2004|pp=295–296}} By 1838, he was capable of working in a small format only. He and his family were living in poverty and grew increasingly dependent for support on the charity of friends.<ref>Guillaud, 128. Originally from Vaughan (1972, p43).</ref>

===Death===
[[File:Entrée de cimetière (1825) - Caspar David Friedrich (Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden).jpg|thumb|upright|''Cemetery Entrance'', {{lang|de|[[Galerie Neue Meister]]|italic=no}}, Dresden]]
Friedrich died in Dresden on 7 May 1840, and was buried in Dresden's Trinitatis-Friedhof (Trinity Cemetery) east of the city centre (the entrance to which he had painted some 15 years earlier). His simple flat gravestone lies north-west of the central roundel within the main avenue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trinitatisfriedhof |url=http://dresdner-stadtteile.de/Zentrum/Johannstadt/Trinitatisfriedhof/trinitatisfriedhof.html |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205182518/dresdner-stadtteile.de/Zentrum/Johannstadt/Trinitatisfriedhof/trinitatisfriedhof.html |archive-date=2022-12-05 |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=dresdner-stadtteile.de}}</ref> His wife Caroline died impoverished seven years later, in 1847.<ref>"[https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/rooms-with-a-view/photo-gallery#:~:text=It%20is%20probably%20Friedrich%27s%20wife,artist%27s%20only%20painting%20of%20her Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century]". [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]. Retrieved 17 May 2025</ref>

By this time his reputation and fame had waned, and his death was little noticed within the artistic community.{{sfn|Schmitz|1940|pp=38–40}} His artwork had certainly been acknowledged during his lifetime, but not widely. While the close study of landscape and an emphasis on the spiritual elements of nature were commonplace in contemporary art, his interpretations were highly original and personal.{{sfn|Vaughan|1980|p=65}}

[[Carl Gustav Carus]] later wrote a series of articles which paid tribute to Friedrich's transformation of the conventions of landscape painting.  However, Carus' articles placed Friedrich firmly in his time, and did not place the artist within a continuing tradition.{{sfn|Vaughan|2004|p=309}} Only one of his paintings had been reproduced as a print, and that was produced in very few copies.{{sfn|Griffiths|Carey|1994|pp=27, 207}}{{efn|group=note|The French sculptor [[David d'Angers]], who visited Friedrich in 1834, was moved by the devotional issues explored in the artist's canvasses. He exclaimed to Carus in 1834, "Friedrich...The only landscape painter so far to succeed in stirring up all the forces of my soul, the painter who has created a new genre: the tragedy of the landscape."{{sfn|Grewe|2006|p=133}}}}