Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his allegorical landscapes, which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins. His primary interest was the contemplation of nature, and his often symbolic and anti-classical work seeks to convey a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. Friedrich's paintings characteristically set a human presence in diminished perspective amid expansive landscapes, reducing the figures to a scale that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension".

5 September 1774

Born on the same birth day (5 September): Adam Hollioake • Amy Beach • Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen • Buddy Miles • Cathy • Clem Clempson • Denys Wilkinson • John Stewart (musician) • John Wisden • Jonathan Kozol • Justin Dentmon • Leila Mackinlay • Loudon Wainwright III • Mario Scelba • Matthias Sammer • Nazr Mohammed • Ryan Guy • Thomas Mikal Ford • Tommaso Campanella • Zeki Yavru

Born in the same month (September 1774): Anne Catherine Emmerich • Johnny Appleseed • Lord William Bentinck