The Cemetery Entrance
by FRIEDRICH, Caspar David, Oil on canvas, 143 x 110 cm
When Friedrich resumed working in oil following the provisional end of his illness, there lingered a dark shadow which also afflicted his private life - a forewarning of the stroke he would later suffer and which would hasten his death. The motif of the graveyard now began to appear with greater frequency in his oeuvre, as for example in the painting The Cemetery Entrance, which was probably commenced in 1825 but which remained unfinished. The imposing gateway is based on that of the Trinitatis cemetery in Dresden.