“Dolmen in Snow,” an evocative oil-on-canvas landscape painting by Caspar David Friedrich, was created in 1807 and remains a quintessential example of the Romanticism movement. The artwork, housed in the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden, Germany, measures 80 by 62 centimeters and reflects Friedrich’s preoccupation with the sublime in nature.
The artwork depicts a tranquil and desolate winter scene dominated by ancient leafless trees and a dolmen—a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb. The bare, contorted branches of the trees stretch towards a muted, greyish-yellow sky, enhancing the gloomy and mystic atmosphere. Snow blankets the ground and the dolmen, imbuing the setting with an austere yet serene quality. Friedrich’s meticulous attention to detail and composition invites contemplation of nature’s enduring and overwhelming presence in the face of human fragility.
