Hutten's Grave

Hutten's Grave is an 1823 oil on canvas in which Caspar David Friedrich moved away from quiet contemplation of nature and engaged directly with the politics of his day. A man stands before the tomb of Ulrich von Hutten, the Renaissance humanist and German nationalist and a contemporary of Martin Luther, dressed in altdeutsch, or old German, attire. That clothing became fashionable during the campaigns against Napoleon as a sign of anti-French feeling, and the Lützow Free Corps also adopted it. Viewers at the time would have recognised both the costume and its political charge.

The picture was made to mark the 300th anniversary of Hutten's death and the tenth anniversary of Napoleon's invasion of Germany. After Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig in 1813, ideas of German unity and nationalism gained momentum, especially in the universities. The ruling powers that emerged from the Congress of Vienna responded with the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, which curbed free speech and banned the teaching of liberal ideas. Friedrich saw this as a betrayal of those who had fought Napoleon, and he set out to create a work that would honour liberal ideas and commemorate those who had died for them.

The names and dates inscribed on the tomb, including Jahn, Arndt, Stein, Görres and Scharnhorst, belong to nationalist thinkers who were Friedrich's contemporaries. Scharnhorst died at Leipzig, while the others faced persecution or exile. By placing their names beside Hutten's, Friedrich connects the past and present of German nationalist thought.

Religion runs through the image too. The headless statue of Faith in the background is often read as a sign of mourning and of religion's declining authority. The Gothic ruin, based on a monastery at Oybin, frames the scene: its interior, associated with the old Catholic order, is broken, while the open land beyond, which some scholars link to Lutheranism, suggests freedom and hope. The man is only half turned away from us, so we can see his face, yet he still draws the viewer into identifying with him. Joseph Koerner described him as embodying a 'missed encounter with history', in which German unity can only be imagined through an unresolved relationship with the past.

The work was sold in 1826, and all the proceeds went to support the Greek War of Independence. Later, the Nazis appropriated Friedrich's nationalist themes, and his reputation suffered for decades afterwards.

Painter

Caspar David Friedrich

Date

1823

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

94 × 73 cm

Museum

Schloss Weimar, Weimar

Genre

landscape painting

Depicts

ruins, nature

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