Blick zur Granitz (Rügenlandschaft)

Caspar David Friedrich

Pen in brown ink over graphite on wove paper

Hamburger Kunsthalle

Blick zur Granitz (Rügenlandschaft) is a drawing by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, executed on the island of Rügen in June 1801 during one of his earliest visits to the Baltic island. The work is a plein-air study rendered in pen in brown ink over graphite on wove paper, capturing a view toward the Granitz forest region — a landscape Friedrich would return to repeatedly as a source of imagery throughout his career. Friedrich, born in Greifswald in 1774 and trained at the Copenhagen Academy before settling in Dresden, is widely regarded as the most important German Romantic landscape painter, known for his deeply felt, often symbolic engagement with the natural world. This drawing belongs to the celebrated 'Großes Rügener Skizzenbuch' (Large Rügen Sketchbook) group of works, which document Friedrich's meticulous on-site study practice and provided compositional source material for many of his major finished works.