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FRIEDRICH, Caspar David: Self-Portrait with Cap and Sighting Eye-Shield

🖼 Self-Portrait with Cap and Sighting Eye-Shield, 1802
Pencil, brush and ink
175 × 105 cm
Hamburg, Germany

Rendered in muted tones, a solitary figure peers through a makeshift viewing device, his face half-shadowed and introspective. Friedrich's self-portrait reveals the Romantic artist as observer and philosopher, using the eye-shield as metaphor for artistic vision and inner contemplation.

The story of art
The story of art
E. H. Gombrich
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