Berlin, 30 January 2017 PRESS RELEASE Museumsinsel Berlin

Berlin, 30 January 2017
GENERALDIREKTION
PRESSE – KOMMUNIKATION – SPONSORING
PRESS RELEASE
Museumsinsel Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie
Bodestr. 1-3, 10178 Berlin-Mitte
Opening Hours: Tue, Wed, Sun 10am–6pm, Thu, Fri, Sat 10am–8pm
Stauffenbergstraße 41
10785 Berlin
MECHTILD KRONENBERG
The Monk is Back – Publication on the conservation of Caspar David
Friedrichs “Monk by the Sea” and “Abbey in the Oakwood”
HEAD OF PRESS, COMMUNICATION,
SPONSORSHIP
FIONA GEUSS
With “Monk by the Sea” and “Abbey in the Oakwood” by Caspar David
Friedrich, the Nationalgalerie in Berlin is the custodian of German Romanticism’s most famous pair of paintings. With a singular radicalism of composition and technique, the artist addresses the relationships between
knowledge and belief, this world and the next, life and death.
Pressereferentin Nationalgalerie
Telefon: +49 30 3978 34-17
Telefax: +49 30 3978 34-13
[email protected]
www.smb.museum/presse
Fragile painting technique, decades of neglect and historical restorations
to “Monk by the Sea” and “Abbey in the Oakwood” had led to changes and
material losses, resulting in a considerable falsification of the original image. Conservation work on both paintings was carried out from 20132016, thanks to the generous support of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und
Halbach-Stiftung.
The technical analyses of the “Monk by the Sea” and the “Abbey in the
Oakwood” unearthed significant findings. High-resolution infrared reflectograms render the underdrawings of both paintings visible for the very first
time, enabling the artist’s creative process to be discerned. X-ray, UV and
raking light photography throw more light on the production process and
state of preservation. Cross-sections clearly illustrate the original layered
structure.
The conservation resulted in a considerable calming of the compositional
structure. Through the removal of overpaintings and retouches the original
paintwork could once more be revealed. The removal of the severely yellowed coats of varnish has created the greatest possible clarification and
a reversal of the shifts in colour value. After 200 years the primary cool,
bluish colour, dominant in “Monk by the Sea” and, after the smalt degeneration, only minimally extant in “Abbey in the Oakwood”, once more reunites this most significant pair of paintings of the Romantic period.
“The Monk is Back”, the exhibition on the occasion of the research and
conservation project, had over 100.000 visitors from January 21 to July
24, 2016. The present catalogue of the same name documents the latest
findings and describes the approach taken to, and the execution of, the
conservation measures.
Edited by Kristina Mösl and Philipp Demandt, German/English, 32 pages,
12 foldouts, 48 colour illustrations, brochure with step-stitched binding, 22
x 28 cm, Prize: 9,95€, ISBN 978-3-88609-787-6.
Das Fotografieren ist ausschließlich zur aktuellen Berichterstattung über die Ausstellung /
Veranstaltung erlaubt. Bei jeder anderweitigen Nutzung der Fotos sind Sie verpflichtet, selbständig vorab die Fragen des Urheber- und Nutzungsrechts zu klären. Sie sind verantwortlich für die Einholung weiterer Rechte (z.B. Urheberrechte an abgebildeten Kunstwerken,
Persönlichkeitsrechte).
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